Recently while in Thailand we had a chance to go to a park called, “Tiger Kingdom” to pet Tigers. Umm can you say, DREAM COME TRUE?!?! Yea, it was legit. What made it even better was, finding out that these beautifully massive creatures weren’t sedated, they just had the “itis”. You know, that point where you’ve eaten so much that you’re in a mini coma? Yep, that’s what they do to the Tigers, they feed them well and then invite us to come and pet them, hug on them and even lay on them, and pretend to bite their tails. I did NOT pretend to bite my tiger’s tail by the way… My momma didn’t raise no fool. Seriously though, It was so cool to see these massive animals up close, they are so beautiful. To my surprise there were all sorts of big cats in Tiger Kingdom. There were white tigers, birds, and my favorite, a lion. Yep, the King of the jungle was even there.
Now here’s the cool part, while we were in Africa we had the opportunity to go on safari in Botswana. We saw elephants, zebras, giraffes, monkeys, gazelles and all sorts of animals. But my heart’s desire was to see a Lion. I really really wanted to see a Lion. The safari was 2 part. In the morning we took a boat around the park and saw elephants and hippos and a few other animals, and then came back for lunch. After lunch was the jeep part of the safari. As we took out in the jeep we were all looking for lions. We looked, and looked and I prayed, “Father please can we see a lion, just one?” I prayed this over and over, each time more hopeful and desperate at the same time. Finally towards the end of the safari, like a little kid, I whined my prayer, “Oh Lord, I just wanted to see one.” Then I heard Him say, “Kimberly, you will see a lion, but not as you expect. I have something much better in store.” I was like, “SWEET!!! We’re going to see one in the wild, maybe running across the road, maybe when we get to Malawi… Oh gosh, what if we see him in the wild and not in a good way?! Oh well, if I survive it’ll be an awesome story!” But as our plane lifted off to leave that beautiful continent behind, I sighed, and thought, “I must have heard you wrong.”
Fast forward to Tiger Kingdom.
After petting Tigers and laughing with my girls, we walked out of the tiger cage and down the hill further into Tiger Kingdom. It was there that I saw him. Huge mane, big brown eyes, paws bigger than both my father’s hands put together no more than 2 feet from my touch, the king of the jungle himself, a lion!!!!! “Oh Father!” I cried in my heart, “He’s so close!!! I can almost touch him!!!” It was then that the Lord reminded tHis daughter of His words in Africa. Two things occurred to me: one, I know the voice of God when He speaks; two, I need to stop trying to figure out everything He wants to do in my life, and just let God be God.
The sign on the cage said “Don’t touch.” so I didn’t, but I could hear him breathing, I could see his chest rise and fall, this great king, but I was struck by his demeanor. There was sadness in his eyes. He was thin and distant. As persistently as I tried I could never catch his direct gaze, it’s like he was somewhere else. Perhaps age and confinement had taken his spark, but whatever it was, I was left with this confident thought, lions aren’t meant for cages.
God isn’t either.
I grew up hearing this profound statement, “In our desire to make God something we can handle, we have inadvertently declawed the Lion of Judah and tamed His image to that of a common house cat.” Another one of my favorite quotes comes from C.S Lewis in his book, “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe”. In the conversation between Mr. Tumnus and Lucy about Aslan, the dialogue goes; “He is not a tame Lion.” “But he is good.”
In our christian walk, sometimes we get so used to God moving a certain way in our lives, that the thought of Him doing something new or different is not only unfathomable, but at its extreme, it feels like heresy. We can become so familiar with the Bible, that we treat it more like a dead biography than the living word. (Hebrews 4:12 “The word of God is living and active…”) We, like the Katy Perry song, can become more concerned with the world hearing our “Roar” that we muzzle the roar of our king through our own need for significance.
When a wild lion is captured, he will pace the boundaries of his cage looking for a way out. Eventually he will lay down, waiting for an opportunity to escape. I believe that God does the same in our lives. He waits for that brilliant moment when we realize that He isn’t made for the cage our logic creates for Him. It is an insult to the greatness of the creator of the sea and sky’s boundaries, to carve out His own limits in our lives. I don’t believe we do this intentionally, but methodically. We are creatures who take comfort in familiarity. There is so much more to God than we even know, but are we brave enough to open the door?
Will we let Him out?
Will we believe in Miracles? Can we trust what we can’t see? Or must we try and figure out the very sovereignty of the Almighty?
This month we are doing “unsung heroes”. It is a month solely focused on prayer and being led by the Holy Spirit. My team and I have all agreed, this will be a month of Miracles, Signs and Wonders because we’ve been called by a God, who is still in the business of blowing our minds. We have aptly named ourselves Team Kaleo, which means “Called, or calling.”
We have heard the roar of the King, we’ve unlocked the cage and we’re letting Him out!
Matthew 11:12
And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize—a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion].
