Who is Our Biggest Giant?

Often our biggest giant, isn’t going to show up as some ten foot monster threatening us with a sword. He isn’t going to have a big booming voice that rattles us to our core and causes us to contemplate who we really are and what we are really made of.

No. Our biggest giant is actually fear itself.

Think about it. What makes a giant so menacing? Sure it’s big and it’s scary. Sure it’s saying things to us that scare us worse than anything else we imagine. Not everything that is big, and scary, and overpowering, is universal. What I find so nerve-racking and terrible, someone else may have a simply solution to overcome it. They may never lose sleep over it or recognize it as a giant at all.

Though giants don’t all have the same faces, they do have similar characteristics. They tower over us. They speak death and destruction over us. They challenge us with the thought that they are in control, and that there is nothing we can do about it. They inhibit us from getting to wherever it is in life that we want to be by standing in our way.

FEAR is the biggest giant of all. Because it is the giant we all endure.

My fear is that I will live an unfulfilled life because I’m constantly searching for purpose. Through this constant seeking, I neglect to take in the satisfaction and the joy hidden in the moments around me. Instead of cherishing the comfort and health that I have in this moment I tend to reflect on the finances I need to get in order. I focus on envisioning a life of travel and not being tied to a cookie cutter life of working my life away in a cubicle.

I don’t condone complacency, but we should also fight the notion to take our lives for granted. If we have loved ones around us and we are able to live in basic comfort, that is already something so much more than we really deserve.

It’s fine to chase dreams, as long as you don’t get caught in the web of lies that if you don’t find your “purpose” in life you will never be fulfilled. This idea only feeds your giant. Mine tells me that I will never do anything great in this life, because I don’t know what it is that I want to do. I want to travel and see and be constantly surrounded by the ones I love, but I’m trapped in that I don’t know how to escape the mundane and create something awesome.

The giant is a liar though. The way to overcome the giant that is speaking down to you right now is to do something in spite of him. So instead of listening to the fluff, the voices that say I’m wasting this life away… I’m going to take in all the goodness of everyday. One simple cup of coffee. One simple smile from someone I meet. One simple hug from my wife. One simple phrase that I read. One simple word that I write. One simple trip that I plan. I will find beauty in the moments by knowing that the joy found within each of them are no wasted and thus the words that this giant is speaking have no validity.

The best way to destroy the giants in your life are to strip them of their truths. To realize that the fear that they impress is no more true than the truths you create for yourself. Create your own truths. Take down your giants. Be free.