It’s been 6 years since the last time I wrote a blog
post. Life just got very…life-y. I’ve been feeling the push to start writing
again for a while and kept putting it off.
The other day I realized I can’t put it off anymore. The idea for this post started forming and
hasn’t really left my thoughts. I
started writing last night, sitting on my bead, furiously writing my thoughts
down in a spiral notebook, the targeted light of a goose-neck desk lamp over my
shoulder. Unfortunately what I ended up
with was more of a passive aggressive venting of all my frustrations with
people over the whole COVID-19 virus situation.
I was so exhausted by the time I got everything out about that I didn’t
write anything about my feelings about everything else going on in the
world. Of course, since this blog is
supposed to be about my spiritual journey and my relationship with God and
Jesus and not my opinion on the state of the world, I cannot use 99% of what I
wrote last night, but I do feel better for having vented.
I woke up a couple mornings ago feeling overwhelmingly
sad. It was such a strong feeling that I
didn’t even want to get out of bed.
There was no reason for it that I could easily identify and I was
looking forward to doing what I had planned that day so feeling that sad made
no sense to me. As I lay there trying to
motivate myself to get up and get going, I realized the sadness was for the
world in general and the United States of America specifically. There are so many huge issues we’re facing in
this country right now and the country feels more divided that it has in my
lifetime.
Each new major issue that arises seems to make the division
grow wider and deeper and with twisted, biased information coming from
politicians, mainstream media, and individuals on social media, It feels like
there are a thousand voices screaming “Pick Me!” at me constantly. I’ve reached a point where I’m just over
saturated with information from all sides of every issue and I don’t want to
hear about any of it anymore.
So, I eventually drag myself out of bed and head to my
sister’s house for our Bible Study group.
We’re between actual studies and waiting on getting the books for the
next study we’re doing so this week we watched “War Room”. And, as He so often does, God started giving
me “little clues” to my situation. I
came away from the movie with two scriptures running through my mind.
John 10:10 KJV
(the first half of the scripture): The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:
1 Peter 5:8
KJV: Be sober, be vigilant; because your
adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour:
I’ve also been listening to
podcasts of sermons from Passion City Church, most of them by Louie Giglio and,
surprise, surprise, each of the 5 sermons in the series has the word roar in
the title and talks about roaring. I was
reminded that in Revelation 5:5, Jesus is referred to as The Lion of Judah so I
decide clearly God is giving me a lion theme here.
I start pulling the pieces
together and doing a little research on lions and their roars and I find some
fun facts like a lion’s roar can be heard from 5 miles away, they roar to
frighten off enemies who are encroaching on their territory and warn others in
their pride of danger. The lion’s roar
measures 114 decibels. To help put that
into perspective, your washing machine or dishwasher measures 70 decibels, a
motorcycle measures 95 decibels, most sporting events measure 100 decibels
(unless you’re at a Utah Jazz home game where the noise from fans has been
measured as high as 109 decibels), and rock concerts typically measure in
between 105 and 110 decibels.
One thing started to bother me as
I was pulling everything together. The
scripture in Revelation calls Jesus the Lion of Judah but the 1 Peter scripture
describes the devil as a lion. They can’t
both be lions, right? I suppose they
could be, it worked for Disney in “The Lion King”, but this isn’t Disney, this
is God we’re talking about. Then I saw
it, that one little word in the middle of the 1 Peter scripture that explained
it all, “as”. The scripture doesn’t say
that the devil is a lion, it says that he is like a lion. The devil is a liar, a counterfeiter, a manipulator,
and will do everything he can to make it seem like he is a lion. He will use a million voices to try and
confuse us and pull us in all different directions. He will use the noise from those voices to
make it seem like he has a mighty roar to try and drown out the voice of
Jesus. But, Jesus IS the Lion and the roar
of the Lion of Judah drowns out all other noises, all other voices. His roar claims us as His, frightens away our
enemies and warns us of danger.
I found a quote that I think
helps further explain my point.
“Among the
hordes of animals that roam the wild, whether the jungle, the mountains or the
plain, the lion is universally recognized to be their chief. The living
embodiment of self-possessed power, he is the most regal in manner and
deportment, the mightiest, the foremost with respect to speed, courage and
dominion. The expression of the lion's supremacy is its roar — a roar which
reduces to silence the cries, howls, bellows, shrieks, barks and growls of
lesser creatures. When the lion steps forth from his den and sounds his roar,
all the other animals stop and listen. On such an occasion none dares even to
sound its own cry, let alone to come into the open and challenge the fearless,
un-surpassable roar of the golden-maned king of beasts.” – Bhikkhu Bodhi
One other fun fact about the roar
of a lion, male lions use a much softer roar when playing with their
young. It therefore makes perfect sense
to me that contained within the roar of The Lion of Judah is the gentle guiding
voice of our shepherd. In John chapter
10, Jesus talks about the Good Shepherd and in verse 27 he says, “My sheep
listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
