In C. S. Lewis’ novel, two boys struggle through adventures. One wonders aloud why Aslan (A type of Christ) doesn’t show up and fix everything. His friend, wisely, says, “You know, he is not a tame lion.”
If we can’t turn God into a tame lion, we wouldn’t mind a gene in a bottle. Rub the lamp just right when you need someone bigger and stronger than you to solve the problem. Out he comes, fixes the problem, and goes back into the lamp till we need him next.
The problem is that the only God who is able to help us doesn’t have to do things our way, and the fantasy “gods” that we think we can control don’t exist.
The problem is that deep down I think that I know what is best for me, and it certainly is not to be led by pain and suffering.
This Friday I am laying my wife’s remains to rest in the Pine Hill cemetery in Grand Rapids. Her stone says, “More love to thee, O Christ”. That is based on a song that says, “Let sorrow do its work, Send grief and pain: Sweet are Thy messengers, Sweet their refrain, When they can sing with me: More love O Christ to thee!”
In the book “Hinds Feet On High Places,” by Hannah Hurnard, she is being sent from the valley of fear to dance on the high places. However, she pulls back when the Shepherd gives her strong and capable guides named Sorrow and Pain.
With the loss of my wife of 55 years and the loss of going to work every day, I am certainly being led to follow the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who is not at all tame.
I have learned to accept the path he leads me in, knowing that if I got what I wanted, it would lead to leanness of soul. Psalm 106:15
When most people were abandoning Jesus because Jesus was not behaving as a TAME LION should, he asked Peter if he would leave. Peter replied that there was nowhere else to go. Only Jesus had the words of life.
When folks are upset at God because he is not providing the comfort and success that they expected, I say, “Where else will you go? Everyone and everything else will fail”. In the poem “Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson, he runs to nature, children, success, work, etc., and all of these let him down. “In their faithfulness to God, their fickleness to me.” God will fight against anyone or anything that becomes more important than my relationship with him.
Besides, I kind of like the adventure of walking with a WILD LION as a best friend.
I can’t tell you where your path will lead or what it will look like, but I can say with certainty that it is better to walk it with him than to walk it alone or with any substitute.
Pray for me as I walk my current valley with my WILD LION.
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