In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day

Mark Batterson recently published a book entitled The Circle Maker.  Good book and would strongly recommend this read for anyone deciding to do something crazy, ministry crazy that is.  I usually shy away from reading the same author back to back, but in this case, I'm real glad God led me away from my usual habits.

As most of you are probably aware, Wendy and I and the girls are moving to Kampala, Uganda to begin an evangelistic ministry called Friday Night Church.  We leave October 15th of this year, and we are scared.  We are so scared, we are scared of being scared. But God has clearly marked this time for us to go, and we are willing, so we must act.  I don't have time to share with you the severity of our scaredness, but in short, we are fearful of everything from our girls getting malaria, to just being plain lonely and everything in between.  All of these fears will probably rear their ugly heads in one fashion or another in the time God has us in Africa.

In the book, "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day" Batterson introduced me to a man in the bible named Benaiah.  Seriously, I thought I knew about all the heros in scripture, but this guy was never taught to me in Sunday school or Bible College.  In my professors’ defense, I did take advantage of all my "skip" days.  In second Samuel chapter 23 we are introduced to a man named Benaiah.   

"Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. 21 And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. 22 Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he too was as famous as the three mighty warriors. 23 He was held in greater honor than any of the Thirty, but he was not included among the Three. And David put him in charge of his bodyguard. " 

After reading this, the first thought that came to my head was when Brad Pitt slayed the giant in the introductory scene of the movie "Troy".  Killing a giant is one thing, and a feat that most of us will never be able to understand, but killing a lion in a pit on a snowy day, that's on a whole different level.  I would like to go so far to say, it's not even in the same ballpark.  Can we all agree that Benaiah's brain seemed to be missing a key God given element, fear?  This guy was fearless!  Even King David never killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day...at least his lion was in broad daylight and his feet were on secure ground.  Yeah, I'm quite sure that King David read his resume and the pit and snow details caught his attention.  

Here's the point Batterson is trying to get across and something that God is beginning to instill in me:  Benaiah was a lion chaser, he loved guaranteed uncertainty.  Did Benaiah ever have doubts, did he ever have fears...yes I'm sure he did.  But did he allow his fears to take his eyes off his Lion, never.  

Most of us out there are not Lion chasers, and by the looks of most men's faces, we stopped chasing our lions a long time ago.  Maybe it was when someone told us we couldn't do it.  Maybe it was when someone disappointed us.  Maybe it was when a loved one died.  Maybe it was when life hit us hard, and everyone around thought we should take the 9-5 job that seemed at the time "the right thing to do", the safe way out.  I don't know, but what I do know for sure, is that most of us have given in to our fears.  And we hate it...we just hate it.  Only one thing holds us back, FEAR.  That's it, nothing else.  The fear of the unknown, of risky possibilities, of failure, and of embarrassment.  

I need to be transparent here...I am fearful of all the above, truly I am.  But one thing I fear more than any of these, is the fear of regret.  One day when I stand before Jesus and He asks me, "Todd, what did you do for Me?"  My one desire is to answer with complete confidence that I took every risk and conquered every fear and that I chased my lion with reckless abandon for the sake of the one thing I love more than anything else, the Gospel.

So we are going to Uganda, going with complete confidence that God will have His way.  I know, I must be a little crazy to take my most precious possessions half way around the world to a foreign land, but so was the Father, when He gave up his one and only Son for you and me.  Am I calling God crazy...yeah He's crazy in love with you and me