Facing Giants

Every Tuesday evening, my children and I have dinner at my mother's house, kind of a ritual if you want to call it that.  This evening's dinner was much like any other week until mom and I began planning our day together tomorrow.  Tomorrow signifies one year since my dad passed away and I thought it important to spend it with mom.  She has wanted to copyright and e-publish a small book my dad wrote and we were discussing how to go about it.  We came to realize that the word file needed to complete the task was on my dad's laptop, in his office, that hasn't been touched for a year or more. Have you ever felt a problem grow exponentially in front of you?  This is exactly how I felt, because it was my task to sit behind his desk, start his computer and weed through his files looking for one word file that may not even exist, because I was more knowledgeable of where to find it.  I would not have let my mom know then, but I was putting on my brave face.

As I sat behind the screen of his computer, it brought back a flood of memories.  Dad had large hands and spent many a day hard at work outside, he did not have nimble hands that flowed steadily across a laptop keyboard.  He was not computer literate, however, when the typewriter became too archaic to find ribbons, he learned the basics.  I loved that he would create a Sunday school lesson, type it out, save the file, print it and then delete the file.  He was afraid he would use all the hard drive space saving his lessons. Many times dad's hands would fumble across the keyboard during the creation of a lesson and my phone would ring.  Do you know how you feel when you find your cable service, cell phone, etc has outsourced their customer service to a non-English speaking country and you have a large problem with said service?  Our conversations regarding the computer issues went similarly.  Most of the time I would hop in my car or schedule a day that I could come and fix the issue, usually something very simple.  

Today, sitting in front of the computer, looking at the list of the many Bible lessons he finally began saving on his hard drive, I realized this modern piece of technology was his giant.  You probably just cocked your head to the side and said, "huh?"  Let me explain, in case you have forgotten or never heard of the Bible's story of David and Goliath.  David, a young man with only a slingshot and five smooth stones, faces down Goliath, a big behemoth of a man clad in armor wielding a massive sword. David, of course, had God on his side, hit Goliath with said stone right between the eyes and killed him. Goliath should have listened when David said in 1 Samuel 17:47 NIV, "All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

So, I can imagine my dad sitting behind this modern typewriter, facing down a giant. Knowing very little about how everything works, but seeing the end result as a clear picture of the lesson God had planned for my dad to teach.  Dad would diligently type his lesson, in true hunt and peck style, for hours until it was completed.

Facing that computer today was facing my grief, memories of what many lost when we lost my dad, a true man of God.  I am not sure what all of dad's struggles were throughout his life, but he saw giants in our day to day struggles that ended in battles God could fight for us. He took those and wrote them down in countless lessons I hope to be able to read someday.  I have to be honest, I hoped to find some last letter he wrote to us, but all these treasures are like a map out of any struggle we might face.

I don't know what struggles you face.  What I know is no matter if it is addiction, grief, financial crisis, marriage troubles or any other giant you face, God is bigger.  Romans 8:31 NIV says, "What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?"  With God backing us up all of our Goliath sized struggles seem to shrink.  I will say one thing, I bet my dad had days sitting in front of that computer that he wished he had five smooth stones.  I leave you with the verse that held true through many of my parent's struggles, and one I call to mind frequently, it is found in Luke 1:37 KJV "For with God nothing shall be impossible."

After poring through my dad's computer, I found that word file was sent to my old e-mail address several years ago.  I never had to sit at my dad's desk and open his computer, but then I never would have learned this lesson.