What About When the Giants Win?

Have you seen the movie Facing the Giants? When it hit the big screen in 2006 the movie enjoyed substantial success at the box office, especially for a picture produced on a shoestring budget by a Georgia church.

The story follows high school football coach Grant Taylor and a team, the Shiloh Eagles. The coach turns a losing season around by inspiring his players to give their best effort and to honor the Lord. If you haven't seen the movie I don't want to give away the ending, but it's not hard to guess the outcome when the Eagles' kicker is a young man named David, his holder is named Jonathan, and the opposing team in the state championship game is nicknamed the Giants.

After many struggles and disappointments, things turn out well for the coach, his family, and his team in the end, and movie-goers leave the theater inspired to tackle their own "giants" with renewed faith in God. That's how it often happens in the movies, and that's close to how it happened in the real-life biblical drama about the young shepherd boy who defeated Goliath.

I have to admit, though, when I saw the movie, I found myself wondering afterward, But what about when the giants win? Have you ever experienced a time when you earnestly and sincerely asked God for victory, but you lost the battle anyway? Did you ever pray for a certain outcome with all the faith you could muster, but things didn't turn out the way you had hoped?

How should you respond when the sought-after miracle never arrives? What should you do when the cancer recurs, the infertility remains, the depression won't lift, the injury doesn't heal, and the church problems stubbornly refuse to go away? What if you coach your players with every ounce of strength you can find, but your team still loses game after game? What about when you feel too small and inadequate for the task you've been given? Like the apostle Paul, do you ever feel like asking, "Who is equal to such a task?" (2 Corinthians 2:16).

Paul faced some giants of his own. He possessed great faith, yet from a human standpoint he got mixed results. God enabled him to perform astounding miracles, yet allowed him to endure an unrelenting thorn in the flesh. God gave him wonderful visions of Paradise, but allowed him to suffer harsh criticism from within the church and severe persecution from without. By God's grace, Paul faced down the giants of his own sin and unworthiness; and by that same grace he persevered when Satan flung fiery darts his direction day after day.

Paul's self-confidence wasn't based on his own capabilities, but on God's power. Paul didn't demand that the Lord give him material comforts or outward success, nor did he boast about his own personal greatness. He wrote, "Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant" (2 Corinthians 3:4, 5). That's the secret. Our competence comes from God, who gives us strength to face the challenges each day brings.

Coach Taylor concludes in the movie, "We gotta give God our best in every area. And if we win, we praise him. And if we lose, we praise him." When and how the giants fall—that's up to God.