The movie, Facing the Giants, helped me through a failing business. I lost count how many times I watched the movie. There are many inspiring scenes, but a favorite, among many, is the “death crawl” scene, where Coach Taylor (played by Alex Kendrick) has player, Brock Kelly (played by Jason McLeod), crawl on all fours with a player on his back. Asked to do his absolute best, Brock responds, “What? You want me to go to the 30?” Coach Taylor responds, “I think you can go to the 50.” Blindfolded (so he wouldn’t give up when he could do more) and coached along the way, Brock makes it to the end-zone. Personally, my favorite part is when Coach Taylor reminds Brock: “You just carried a 140-pound man across this field on your arms.” The player, Jeremy, interrupts and says, “Coach,… I weigh 160.” We must never under-estimate what we are capable of doing. Now, I would not recommend that we try crawling 100 yards with a 140-lb man (I mean, 160-lb man) on our back—coaches, there is a thing called “rhabdomyolysis”—but, we can–if we do.
Facing the Giants is a faith-based, Christian movie, but it has a message for all. It ends with a framed picture of Matthew 19:26 (“…with God all things are possible”). What ever your beliefs, it is true that when we trust our path and believe in a purpose greater than self, all things are possible. We tend give up on ourselves—to not even try. If we fail, so what? (My business did.) We just have to give our “absolute best”. I believe we will always surprise ourselves.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow.
Carpe momento!