Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is protrayed at the very end of the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!, and in the 2001 film Pearl Harbor, 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.”
And the rest is history.
This slumbering giant played soccer at Greeley Central
High School. Her coach gave one of his motivational pep talks, but the only
thing that stuck in her memory was something about a sleeping giant. Though she
didn’t know it then, it was this Japanese admiral’s quote that he was talking
about. When her coach told the story of the sleeping giant, it captivated her
and she wanted desperately to be that giant that woke up and stopped every
shot, the one to save the day, heck, maybe even assist a goal as a goalkeeper.
Who knew that sleeping giant deal would be prophetic
for her life?
I’ve kinda been of a fighter my whole life. While I am
a romantic to some degree, war movies saturated with honor, integrity, and the
underdog prevailing will win me over hands down compared to some lady whose
husband dies 
and is left spending a year mourning her loss eventually learning
to make shoes(though i do like that movie). There’s just something in me that loves a good fight. Not a
dirty, below the belt fight. But one that’s magical. In the words of
Eddie Dupris from Million Dollar Baby “it’s the magic of fighting battles beyond
endurance…It’s the
magic of risking everything for a dream that nobody sees but you.”
I’ve always had the sense that I was destined to
be a fighting giant. Throughout my life, I have cracked open my eyes long
enough to shew away mangy little pests that posed as threats to my comfortable,
deep sleep.
There was that time when I was on the team that never won a soccer
game in 4th grade. We were playing that team, you know, the one that won every game. They were
killing us…like I’m pretty sure they mercy ruled us. But I got so perturbed
that after they scored their umpteenth goal and we had a kick off, I took that
stupid ball, all by myself, through their entire team and scored a goal. Sure
the score was a lot to 1, but at least we weren’t walking away with a
goose-egg.
Or maybe in 5th grade when it was my turn to
share my story that I wrote in front of the class. My classmate, Paul,
snickered at my story and was making fun of me while I was reading. So, as we
left the classroom for 
recess, I grabbed him by the shirt and said, “don’t ever
laugh or make fun of me again� and as he pulled away from me with careless
disregard, I socked him in the arm (let that be a fair warning to any of you
who want to laugh or make fun of this story I wrote…).
Or after years of bad relationships with men, I finally
stood up and fought to regain and restore my dignity. I was able to let myself live
again after one guy took a piece of me without my permission.
But I’d like to say the moment this sleeping giant woke up
and fought, was the weekend after a year and a half long relationship, one I
thought 
was on the road to matrimony, disintegrated right before my eyes. I
humbly feel at the footstool of God knowing I had the choice to either be
pissed at God for the broken relationship with the man I thought I was going to
marry, or to ruthlessly pursue Him even though I didn’t get it and my heart
felt like it had been beaten with a meat tenderizer.
This sleeping giant had had enough of those stupid little
imps trying to torment her.
Though, once she awoke from her comfortable, deep sleep, she
realized 
being comfortable wasn’t as exciting or fulfilling as defeating the
Enemy. She also realized she wasn’t fighting for victory but from victory.
And as Satan and his army kamikazed her heart that weekend
in December, the only thing he could say by Sunday was, “I fear all we have
done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill her with a terrible resolve.”
And the rest is history in the making…
