Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants

Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants

For a number of years, I travelled overseas to Great Britain. The purpose of these trips was to strengthen relationships with associated churches and to help transition leadership in a South Wales church. Although I have not been there for several years, I cherish the friends I made. Although I was kiddingly referred to as the “cousin from across the sea” or the “Yank,” I was welcomed as a brother in the Lord.

On one of these trips, while I was making a purchase with “their money”, the English pound, I noticed an inscription on the edge of the two-pound coin. It read, “standing on the shoulders of giants.” Intrigued by the phrase, I googled it on my IPad and discovered an interesting story.

Although the phrase goes way back in history, Isaac Newton is the one who is credited for making it popular. Remembering your high school physics class, Newton formulated the laws of motion and gravity. Where upon he wrote these words, “if I had seen further, it is standing on the shoulders of giants.” That inscription made me think.

It is easy for me to forget those who played a part in my life. I am the kind of person who is always looking forward and rarely looking backwards. What Isaac Newton said forced me to take a good, hard look at those who earned the right to speak into my life. A number of those man and women are only with me in memory now. Some I have not seen for a long time. But I will tell you this, God used a lot of people in a lot of circumstances to shape and mold me. By the way, he is not done yet.

More times than I care to remember, I hear myself teaching, preaching or counseling words of wisdom that my grandmother, my parents, my mentors and my friends spoke to me. There is much to say for book knowledge but it is the wisdom that comes from the giants in your life that allow you not only see but go further than you ever dreamed.

Praise God for the giants!