Answering the call

Randy Friesen

Have you ever faced a lion? I'm not talking about your last visit to the zoo but an encounter with a "real lion" on the open plain. Our family just returned from a four-month ministry assignment in East Africa. We spent time on several occasions in Masai villages (the Masai are a nomadic/pastoral tribe). There it's not uncommon to meet young men who have confronted and killed lions. We were informed that one faces lions while protecting cattle or as a rite of passage into full manhood. Masai graduation rites involve the need to prove bravery, and confronting and killing lions is still a preferred method for this.

Being the curious type, I began asking Masai how they killed lions in hand-to-hand combat. I was informed that one stalks lions in the morning after the lions, which are nocturnal hunters, have eaten. The warrior carries a 12-inch dagger, which is sharpened to a point on both ends, clutched in the right hand. The warrior's right forearm is wrapped in blankets. Upon meeting and provoking a lion, he must stand his ground as the lion charges. Lions always roar as they attack, attempting to paralyze their prey with fear. As the lion rushes the Masai warrior, he thrusts his right hand into the lion's open mouth and turns the dagger. The lion cannot close its mouth on the double-pointed dagger. Often the warrior receives claw marks on his chest and legs as the lion is now on top of him. As the lion screams in pain, fellow warriors thrust it through with their spears. The victorious warrior then wears the mane of the lion at his graduation ceremony into full elderhood within the tribe.

It's hard to compare graduation events like this one with the gowns, caps and diploma variety we are used to. However, I am left with a question. Is there any cause worth dying for? The Scriptures teach us that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. We are called to resist him, standing firm in our faith (I Peter 5:8.9). The Scriptures also teach us that those who lose their life will find it and that those who want to follow Jesus must first take up their cross. What does all this mean?

We live in a culture where the kingdom of God has become peripheral to our lives. We are more concerned with climbing the ladder of success than with servanthood. Dying to self and denying ourselves our rights aren't in our vocabulary. Maybe it's time to examine just what we're trying to graduate into.

The call to embrace and advance the kingdom of God is a call to become overcomers, warriors who wrestle not against others of flesh and blood but rather against their own flesh, the world and the powers of darkness. We enter this kingdom by the "blood of the lamb" that was poured out to cleanse us from guilt, condemnation and the fear of punishment. We stand in this kingdom through the Word lived and proclaimed like a double-edged sword. When the enemy roars with fear, lust or deception, we thrust the word of truth into his face. Those who respond to this call, "love not their lives unto death" (Revelation 12:11). They actually believe there is something worth dying for. They've received a revelation of the victory of the Lion and the Lamb of the tribe of Judah, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. His kingdom will never fall. Is your cause in life worth dying for?

Randy Friesen is director of Youth Mission International.

Return to the M.B. Herald Vol. 35, No. 14 Home Page