Giants

  "Keep moving forward." 
   This has become my mantra lately because now "forward" means without known impending medical interruptions.  I have no more chemotherapy planned for my future, no more planned hospital stays coming up, and there is no more sign of cancer in my body.  These are the giants I have been facing since November and now they are beginning to fade into my personal history rather than having a part in my daily experience.
   When Israel sent the twelve spies into the Promised Land to explore it, ten of them came back with the report that the land was indeed beautiful but there were giants already living there.  The giants could not be conquered and invading the land would be foolish.  They had seen but did not believe that God could intervene.  "Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, 'We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it'" (Numbers 13:30).  He wanted to move forward, but the people became so distraught and nervous that they even wanted to go back to Egypt where they had been slaves and forget the whole idea of establishing a new nation (Numbers 14:1-4).
   Giants only get in the way when we are moving forward.  Giants will not threaten you if you decide to return to whatever pathetic situation you were in prior to trying a new and better path.  If I had looked ahead at my giants and thought, "Hospitals?  Chemotherapy?  Meds and surgically implanted devices?  Throwing up and always feeling sick?  No control over if or even when I can go back to work again?" and decided just to keep the cancer instead, I would not have had to face these other giants.  I would still have the cancer -- in fact, it would ultimately have killed me -- but I would not have had to worry about these other giants; they would have left me alone.  But once we decided to attack the cancer, these giants became the new enemies that showed up that also had to be overcome as we moved forward.  When we do attack, the giants will show up.  What is possible will have to emerge out of what seems impossible.  But then when we do overcome, when God escorts us through to victory, the reward of the land flowing with milk and honey awaits.  Life will be exciting and sweet and good again.
   Keep moving forward, Phil.  The giants are gradually losing this battle.

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 

persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  We always carry 

around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body."

(2 Corinthians 4:8-10)