This was first posted August 5, 2011
Over the past several weeks I’ve read several blogs and opinion pieces directed at the political intrigue that has been going on Washington. I found it interesting that several espousing both liberal and conservative viewpoints invoked the idiom, beware of waking the sleeping giant of America. The phrase was both familiar and intriguing to me. Being inquisitive, as I often do, I Googled it.
What I discovered was that in the 1970 film, Tora, Tora, Tora, one of the characters, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is portrayed at the very end of film as saying after his attack on Pearl Harbor, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” Again, in the 2001 film Pearl Harbor the quotation was used, but this time abbreviated to where it was merely stated, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant.”
Further investigation revealed that there is no evidence that such a statement occurred in December 1941, but it has certainly now been resurrected into our national discourse. I think it is a fine phrase; one that can be a source for inspiration if we apply it to ourselves and our everyday lives.
Dale Brown, the legendary LSU basketball coach spoke and wrote often about how important it is to be armed with faith, conviction, and belief in in any undertaking and that those were the keys to waking and empowering the sleeping giant that dwells in each of us.
Do you have the courage to wake your sleeping giant?
There isn’t a ruler, a yardstick, or a measuring tape in the entire world large enough to compute the strength and capabilities of the giant who is fast asleep within you. Its size and power are unlimited. Its force is that of a million dynamos. Its tireless energy is beyond all comprehension. It’s the giant of your untapped potential; your latent ability to unfold, to develop, and to grow…but it will continue to lie there peacefully asleep until you decide to wake it up.
Like the desert lacking water, too often people endure shortages in their lives, when all they must do is simply open the valves, the valves of SUCCESS ATTITUDES, SUCCESS HABITS, and a PLAN OF ACTION to achieve them.
The giant who sleeps within all of us will come alive only in direct proportion to the personal belief and conviction we hold. Those who utilize the full power and capacity of their inner giant aren’t motivated by a government, a corporation, or society. They wake up the giant by taking firm control of their abilities, talents, and skills. They tap their potential by acting in a personal way.
If you feel too weak or afraid to wake your giant, you are being tricked by your humanity. Remember with Faith you are capable of anything. Jesus said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” FAITH, BELIEF, AND CONVICTION are the keys, the spurs, and the loud alarm that will wake up the sleeping giant within us all.
There is a prayer that I found not long ago in a publication of the Salvation Army that has helped to give me the strength to overcome the self-imposed knots I tie; knots that hold me back. It’s appropriately called The Knots Prayer:
Dear God,
Please untie the knots that are in my mind, my heart, my life. Remove the have nots in my mind that bind me and hold me back.
Erase the will nots and might nots that find a home in my heart. Release me from the could nots, would nots, and should not’s that obstruct my life.
And most of all, dear God, I ask that you remove from my heart and my life all the “am nots” that I have allowed to hold me back, especially the thought that I am not good enough and powerful enough.
Amen.
Have an AWE-full weekend!
William “Bill” Bacque