I know there must be at least 20 past world race blogs with this same title, but I don’t care, I like it and I’m gonna rock it anyway. Last month in Thailand our days were pretty full at our ministry site, but every now and then we were able to get out to some incredible places in the area of Kanchanaburi. One of these things we were able to do was going to the “Tiger Temple�. I’m not too clear on the details, but apparently tigers hold some sort of spiritual significance in Buddhist culture and they have turned that into a profitable business by allowing tourists to pet and have their pictures taken with adult tigers and cubs… for a price of course. The sad thing is that these huge, powerful, wild animals are in chains for most of their days and forced to lay around and let would be prey touch them for pictures. When you’re having your picture taken with the tiger, the staff member is standing by, ready to firmly smack the tiger in the face if they turn their head toward you. It doesn’t appear to “hurt� them, but it is enough of a nuisance to make them turn their heads forward. It is an interesting experience to watch physically inferior people smack around these massive cats that could easily tear apart a human being.
As I was processing this, I believe God showed me a stunning parallel to my own life and also to modern day Christianity, especially in western countries. We have, living and breathing inside of us, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. But at the hands of an inferior adversary we become tame and passive instead of stepping in to the power and authority that is our birthright as a son or daughter of the living God. We lie down to the lies we’re told about ourselves, we lie down to sinful nature and we lie down to selfishness and pride.
We were NOT created to lie down. We were created to be a spiritually violent, wild, un-tame people that rage against the lies we’ve been told and rage against our sinful nature. We were created to fiercely advance the kingdom of God, bearing our teeth and tearing through resistance and distraction that would seek to rob us of our birthright.
I don’t have a magic solution that will turn us all into spiritual tigers. When I look at my life, I see too much lying down and haven’t shown my teeth nearly as often as I could have. But I’ve been encouraged that over the last 5 months on this race, I feel that God is slowly teaching me to be wild. He is teaching me through His word, through brokenness over the lost, through the pain that I’ve seen and through the family that I have around me on my team and squad. I don’t seem to be a very quick learner in this regard, but He continues to give grace.
Let’s get there together. Let’s be the fierce body of Christ that we were created to be. Let’s rage against the things of this temporary world and tear our teeth through the lies we’ve been told about ourselves. Let’s claim our birthright… and walk in it.
(Written perpetually over the last two weeks, completed on June 7th. I also had some freakin sweet tiger pictures to insert but the lack of stable internet in Nairobi prevented me from posting them. Check back later on for an update.)
