Lions Gone Mad!

To me, Monday mornings are a time for sleeping in, lazing around, and easing into a new week.  Not so today, as evidenced by the following entry I just penned.  Enter the world of my waking thoughts turned to prayer.

Horrible, horrible dream!  Lions gone mad.  Lions everywhere.  In our neighborhood.  On our walking paths.  In our yards.  In our own homes!  Hunting.  Stalking.  Attacking … us!  Screams everywhere.  Corpses of dear ones dragged away where they are suffocated, ripped apart, eaten.

I awoke, glad for my safety, my bed, my blankets, my wife breathing deeply next to me, my dog doing the same next to out bed.

Poor Trinity (the name of our three-legged boxer).  She would be an early victim in the lion apocalypse.  Heart and disposition to defend herself and her people, yet unable to do so long or effectively because of her disadvantage.  Strange how frequently I am moved to melancholy, almost mourning, thinking of her dying – but that’s another tale.  She would tragically be such easy prey.

Easy prey the weak and defenseless.  Like children.  Children.  Grandchildren.

O dear God!

⁸ Be serious!  Be alert!  Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour (1 Peter 5:8).

Lions!  Lions everywhere!

“5:22 AM.  Relax.  Pull the covers up.  Adjust the pillow.  Get comfortable.  Go back to sleep,” he purred.

The foe purrs, and my heart shakes.  Fool!  Lazy, self-centered, reckless, feckless fool!

She was right.  I used to rise early and often to plead for strength and wisdom.  Why do I no longer rise to my knees and fight so for my family?  Years now wasted away in a few more hours of slumber!

⁹ Resist him and be firm in the faith, … (1 Peter 5:9a).

Father, forgive me!  Jesus, what a poor clanging noise bucket I have been.  My own children have been hunted.  My son.  My daughter.  They are dragged off while I opine oh so reverently!

Who will resist him?  Who will pray?  Who will battle?  Who will protect Evangeline and Judah?  Who will be engaged for our children and our grandchildren’s sakes?

This is our call!  This is our place!  This is our post, beloved!

Lions everywhere!  Where are the warriors?  Where are the guardians? the protectors armed and armored in battle attire and arrayed on their knees?

⁹ Resist him and be firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world (1 Peter 5:9).

In the Lake Moraine subdivision.  In Brighton and Hartland and Howell and Highland and Holly.  In Detroit and Ann Arbor.  In Windsor and Washington.  In Canada and Mexico.  In Europe and Asia.  In Myanmar – Yangon, Theinzeik, Thaton, Mawlamyine.

Late and weak and ashamed I come, Lord.  Forgive my ignorance and insolence.  Protect and preserve Your people.  We are too frail.  So easily distracted and divided.  Such easy prey.

Spirit of God, open the eyes of my heart – of our hearts – and grant that we may hear the lions’ roars.  Then, rather than quake or panic or pull the covers over our heads, move us to mercy and to resolve to pray for our children, for one another and with one another.

¹⁰ Now the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will personally restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little.  ¹¹ The dominion belongs to Him forever.  Amen (1 Peter 5:10-11).

Father, restore in me a right spirit, a clear vision, a soldier’s integrity and purpose and resolve, a servant’s heart and constitution – like that of my Lord.

Establish, strengthen, and support us, Spirit of the living God.  Grant that we – Donna and I, our family, our faith family – would see again what really matters and what is truly at stake. 

What did Jesus do when Satan sought to sift Simon Peter like wheat?  Jesus prayed for His man.  Can we do any less for one another and especially for the most vulnerable among us when we perceive the dragon lurking at the gates?  Dear God, move us to march out and on together on our knees!  (I’m looking at you HCC).

If it must be, stir us from our sleep even with the terrible howl of the predator and the desperate screams of his victims.

Lord Jesus, save and keep safe our children our grandchildren, our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, and the nations!

Thank You!  Thank You for sounding alarms in my spirit while I yet have breath to do something about it.

Thank You for Your personal commitment and investment to accomplish Your purpose in, through, and for us.

Make Your church, Lord Jesus, a window to the world, a station where we are increasingly more bound together by Your heart than by our whims, and an instrument made ever more useful in Your work to populate Heaven with our family and friends, with our neighbors and the nations.

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Soli Deo Gloria!