One of the most epic battles in all of history was in the 11 century BC in the Elah Valley in Israel. It was between a young nobody, nobody knew, named David and a 9 ft 9 inch giant named Goliath. The two enemy camps were located on each side of the Elah Valley, a mile across from each other.
Goliath wanted one man to represent each side and do battle and whoever won, would determine the winner. He wanted this because he knew he would win and in doing so, save the lives of hundreds of his compatriots. Fairly good strategy if you knew the odds of winning was clearly on your side.
For 40 days, Goliath would come out on his side of the mile gap and shout to the armies of Israel to send a man down so they could fight together. For 40 days, no Israelite dared to go down. The story is long and worth a read but in short, a teenage boy named David took the challenge and killed the giant.
The point is the daily taunts by the giant started a mile away on the other side of the valley and with each day, the giant came further down his side of the valley. By day 40, he was starting to come up to Israel’s side. Our giants will not quit taunting us, and if we let them, they will keep coming until they invade our space and pose the most risk to us.
It could be a week or a month, but the giants in our life keep coming until they overtake us, or we defeat them. I will not go into what kind of giants I am speaking of, but we all know what I am talking about. It is that thing that you fight to control so no one will know your weakness.
My advice – Kill the giant when it is a long way from you and do not wait until it is on you. The mile distance in this story is a metaphor for a week, month, a year before the giant overtakes you. We need to deal with the giants in our life before they get close. KT