The lion kingdom is ruled by the monarchy system. There is a single ruler of every pride. As that ruler ages, the other dominant lions make their bid for his throne. In the first part of the ruler’s final life stage, he is able to ward off the threats—even though his teeth might be falling out. Finally, at some point, the king lion cannot sustain his power, and he yields to a new leader.
Is that the end of the old and now deposed king? Nope.
When the females go on their hunt, they take the old lion with them for one purpose: to roar. They set him up on one side of their hunting territory, and then they go across to the other side and wait for their prey. The old lion’s role is to roar and scare the prey so they run the other way into the female’s trap.
The prey would have survived if they had gone toward the roar. The worst-case scenario would have been a “gumming” by the old and harmless lion before running away and escaping the females’ attack.
Our faith life is a bit like that.
All of us are prone to run away from the roars of life when fear, doubt, and worry invade our mind and heart. But God says to run straight toward the roar and he will catch us with his loving arms.
Why is that so hard for us to understand, let alone act on?
For me, the inexorable current of stress coursing through my body caused me to run. As a result, seeking God drifted away from my consciousness, and consequently my grasp. Each wave of stress would mean more inaction and that produced more and more fear. So I would continue running from the roar and put off going to God.
HE IS NOT HIDING!
God is not hiding his blessings from us. He is waiting for us to take action steps in faith, just as we did when we initially surrendered our lives to him. God wants us to run toward him because we believe he will bless and protect us, and because we trust him. It’s a matter of faith.
So many blessings lie dormant because of our misconception that we need to be “perfect and worthy” before God can use us. We have the mistaken notion that we have to be spiritually mature Christians living joy-filled lives to have any part of advancing the Kingdom. No!
All too often we move away from the lion’s roar instead of running to it and activating our faith in God. He tells us we can have a purpose-driven life and be part of glorifying his Kingdom–if we make a move toward him, if we take a shot, and if we hand the situation over to him.
Of course there are risks in running toward the roar. It’s scary, I get it. But running away from the roar takes us to a place where our soul groans. Our hope vanishes. Our dreams die.
If that’s not bad enough, running away from the roar means we will have missed a God-driven triumph and the chance to grow stronger in him for the next challenge…the next roar.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” Ephesians 6:10
