Heroes and Giants

(Currently listening to Fireflight, Unbreakable)

My 2nd blog entry and I'm already struggling to write.  See?  Writing is something I love yet I have no disciple for.  But I guess that's the point of this.  I'm not being a completely lazy writer though.  Yesterday at work (a very long day at work) I wrote a rap song about my job and then wrote a fiction story about Hollywoods new action hero Johnny Rays!  One day you'll be seeing a movie trailer for that story.  It'll be awesome.

I have tried writing a few entries the past few days but they haven't seemed too interesting.  I had one going for a while about "Choice" and how we deal with past choices/ mistakes and how to avoid this and that... blah blah.  I didn't like it too much after a while.  Even now, I'm not so sure where I'm going with this.  Sure, there's been a lot on my mind this past week but what's important/ interesting enough to be put on paper?  

I remember being a little boy and looking around at the world and it being so big.  Before I was even told about the massive size of our planet and the universe I still felt very small.  Even now when I walk to work and look up at the tall buildings in the city I feel like a spec.  Maybe you've heard the story about Israel before they stepped into the "Promised Land".  Before they crossed the Jordan River they sent spies into the land to... well, spy out the land.  When these spies returned two of them were very optomistic saying that, though there were giants in the land, they could still concur it... No worries.  However, the rest of the men were not as enthused.  They said concerning the giants, "We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them". (Numbers 13:33) And you know what?  I don't blame them.  Sometimes the giants and trials we face in life seem too big for us to handle.  I know, at least for me, my first reaction is to freak out when something huge appears in front of me.  Even if it looks like something I've handled before or something that I know that I can overcome, I still go into "freak out" mode.  And when I get into that mode the last thing I want to hear is another guy telling me in an overly cheery voice "What?  Those giants aren't so big!  We can handle this!".  As positive and encouraging as that is, it's not really helping me with where I'm at.  Even if the giants aren't big and we really can handle this, my confidence is shaken and my faith is looking a bit weak.   I think what I'm trying to get at here is, 'How do we handle the curve balls, the giants in our life?'.  

Now, I'm a pretty lazy guy.  Maybe not in lifestyle then definitely in my thinking.  I want the easy way.  "There is a part of me that always sees the easy way.  If it doesn't hurt then not another word."  (Emery, Churches and Serial Killers).  This song hasn't shaped the way I view life but I think it has opened my eyes to how my thought process has already been working.  I feel like I should be handed everything in life.  I mean, come on, I'm Joshua Reece, son of Reggie and a child of God.  Surely I will have the easygoing life and not have to worry about rent, tuition, broken hearts, and the bad parts of life.  Ha, that is laughable!  Yet that's the way I think and I wouldn't be surprised if others have the same mindset.  So when something big & bad appears in front of me it throws me off course.  

Why do I think like that?  Why do we think like that?  Maybe it has something to do with me growing up an only child.  It was Mom, Dad, and me.  But even then, they didn't just hand things to me whenever and wherever I wanted them.  Sure, I did get things I wanted sometimes but so do many children.  I can still remember plenty of times when I was younger when I didn't get my way and I'd throw a fit and get sent to my room empty handed.  So that can't be it.  Maybe it's me growing up in the States where so much is almost literally handed to you.  From TV shows, internet, to fast food; whatever desire you have it can be fulfilled within seconds.  But that doesn't work too well, either.  There are plenty of places I could have been born into that would have a similar "easy access" to things...  Maybe it's just a lie that I've worked up in my mind to make me feel happy and comfortable.  At some point I must have fooled myself to thinking that I was bigger than I actually am and as a result I'm shaken when the issues of life happen.  

In John 16:33 Jesus is speaking with His disciples and says something that comes to my mind quite often.  "In this world you will have trouble."  Well, I think we all can agree with that.  We've been around long enough to understand that trouble happens all of the time.  Some may be going through tougher parts of life than others, but I think it's safe to say that everyone, in one form or another, has seen the imperfect side to life.  But what Jesus says next somehow keeps me going.  It's these words that somehow connect with me and encourage me right where I'm at.  "In this world you will have trouble.... But take heart!  I have overcome the world."  For me, it's like Jesus is saying that He's been through everything that I'm going through and still He was able to overcome it.  It's encouraging and challenging all at the time.  After reading this I start to think differently.  If Jesus, being fully God but also fully man, could do it then so can I.  Suddenly I don't feel so small anymore.  But it's not me that has built myself up in some self-absorbed way.  I've been shown a different angle, a new perspective on my situation and I know that I can make it through.

I may just be one person in a world of billions.  And I may feel like I'm sometimes lost and forgotten in a sea of faces.  But I know that even though I am just a small spec, I am a part of the grander story.  The story of Humanity.  A story of Heroes and Giants and how those Heroes go about defeating the Giants.  Will we hide in fear?  Or will we Take Heart?