I bet very few of you know that yesterday was a very important day. It was World Lion Day! I didn’t even know about this national holiday until I saw a picture on National Geographic. This has a significant impact on me especially. I don’t know if you know this or not, but you probably should, lions are my all time favorite animal in the entire world! Ask my Mom, she’ll tell you of the countless times she saw me run across the yard on all fours with a string of some sorts tied around my waist to look like a tail.
I actually wanted nothing more then to be a real lion!
Not to mention, my all time favorite movie (to this day) is The Lion King. Lets just say, I have had a love for these amazing creatures since I was young.
I was a little bummed that I didn’t get the chance to see one in person, in the wild on the race. I decided to skip the safari the day everyone else went and run a half marathon instead. Even thought I didn’t get to see one on this adventure, I know that just means I will have to go back to Africa again!
So, back to the significance of World Lion Day. We will have to go back a little in time to the night before we left for the Race. We were in Georgia, and we had a night of worship. God spoke to me during that night through a vision. In my vision I saw a metal cage. It was like one of those cages you see in cartoons. It looked really heavy and made out of steel. The metal bars were thick and the bottom and top were made of thick slabs of steel. It looked about the size of a dog crate, maybe a little bit bigger. On the outside of this cage was a little sign. It was about the size of a mailbox, and it had a word written on it in big bold red letters. It said, “FEAR.”
I didn’t know at the time when I left what this meant. I had a feeling it was important, so I didn’t forget about it. Fast forward a few months….ok like 11 months! And I find myself at final debrief. It was one of the last times we would worship together as a squad. God was speaking to me and he brought the image of the metal cage to my mind again. It was so cool, because this time when I saw the cage I realized what it meant.
God began piecing it all together. Before I left for the race, I let fear keep me locked up in a cage. So the vision I saw before I left was a picture of myself. I allowed my fears keep me locked up. As I saw the image in my mind for the second time it looked a lot different. The bars were bent and the sign was no where to be seen.
This year God has set me free from fear.
I had been living life in fear. I allowed my fears to keep me locked up in a tiny steel cage. This year God has bent the bars and allowed me to conquer my fears. He showed me that the only thing in the world I have to fear is him.
Want to know the best part of this whole thing?! Well, as I was saw the cage in my mind the second time, I thought about a lion. A lion is probably one of the most fearless animals on the planet. They are the top dogs, and really have not other animal to fear. They are the king of the beasts! If only a lion knew it’s full potential it would not be locked up in a cage!
Next I saw the image of a lion. He was stand looking out over the savanna. He was so beautiful. He was free and he was not afraid.
Wait for it, this is the best part!!!
Then God said, “This is you.”
I am a lion!!
Not only do I have a roar of a lion, I am a lion to the very core! Seriously I can not explain how awesome it was to hear God call me a lion. God showed me that I was a lion all along, I just hadn’t realized it yet.
