Facing the Little Giants

Last night's small group was Chapter 2 of Facing Your Giants, by Max Lucado. I would love to tell you, folks, that this is a great book, but I'm restraining myself to one chapter at a time in an effort to teach the chapters effectively. Chapter 2, "Silent Phones" is all about those opportunities that we wait on with crossed fingers, baited breath and hopeful hearts. In other words, waiting for the phone to ring, the call to come, the opportunity to arrive, yet what we sometimes receive is the "silent phone".

We learn in the book that David, little dear Shepherd boy, runt of the giant sized family, was facing that small giant of living a rather mundane life, waiting for the silent phone to ring. Waiting for his opportunity. And if you know your biblical stuff, you know Samuel came a'knocking and brought the phone a'ringing. Tah-dah, just like that, opportunity knocks. David becomes a king. Who knew? Who would've thought it? He came from such humble beginnings.

In our group, I encouraged us mundane-livers to be encouraged, the phone will ring. Opportunity will show up; God does have a plan. The key, friends, is to wait for ring. Sometimes we pick them phone up before it even starts to buzz. Sometimes we move ahead of God. Sometimes we step outside, or out of God's will, and miss the call altogether.

I'm not afraid to laugh at myself, and it's a good thing because there's plenty to chuckle about. I shared with our friends last night that as a teenager, suffering from ridiculously low self-esteem, I was nervous and resistant to pump gas for the first time. Travel back with me, sixteen years of age, first car...never pumped gas before. My personality being what it was, I had plenty of anxiety about how I would mess this all up. This menial, simple task became a daunting, anxiety-producing event. I strategically avoided it for as long as I could. After all, where does the cash go inside the pump? How does that pump work anyway? I have to go inside and actually talk to the cashier? What if there is a long line of people waiting behind me. Can you say, ANXIETY. Relax friends, I have come a long, long way. All that turmoil in the brain waves has simmered down and I am completely comfortable with pumping gas, and proudly I can say, talking to strangers.

This little giant of a task became a huge obstacle of a giant. Friends, those of you who are superbly outgoing and "people" people, just skim over this incident, because you just won't understand. Working out the details in my head was to my detriment and not to my favor. My giant fear of embarrassment limited my freedom. I'm sure I was missing the ringing phone of opportunity to be care-free young lady with a driver's license, by creating and sustaining a giant obstacle of ridiculous.

Let that be a lesson to all you folks who, like me, tend to work out the problems in your head, even before the problem is a problem. Remove those giant giants. Don't let the little stuff hinder you from hearing the phone ring, guys. And when it's ringing, and God has opened the door for amazing opportunities for you, by all means, answer it!