One of the coolest moments in the movie The Lion King, is when Simba, the little lion prince, turns to face the hyenas which are chasing him. He draws himself up to his full height and lets out a not-so-mighty roar. And to his surprise, the hyenas turn tail and head for the hills. Then the camera pulls back and we can see that Simba is not alone. His father, Mufasa, the great lion king is standing behind him. Simba had power because he was standing in his father's presence.
Now it would really be cool to be a lion. I mean, if you have to be an animal, then you'd want to be a lion. Jesus gets called a lion. Nobody messes with a lion. They are like the United States Marines of animals; but without the logo and the tattoos. And you get to wear your hair longer. But I digress. So it would be nice, since we are the children of Christ, to be lions, right? But no, we don't get to be lions, we get to be sheep. Sheep? Isn't that like being told you get to be the tree in the school play? There's no prestige in it and somebody's bound to make fun of you. You're a sheep for crying out loud. You might as well pin the "kick me" sign on yourself.
Sheep are some of the dumbest animals on the planet. Not that I am an expert on sheep. But I have spoken with a few ranchers who are intimate with the habits of these pasture grazing fuzzballs. It seems that sheep have no concept of things as they really are. One shepherd revealed that some of his sheep liked to jump onto ledges where the sweet grass grows, but then they couldn't get back to the flock. They were basically stuck on the ledge, too afraid to leap back. Now, he thought it would be nice if he could just jump down on the ledge, pick the sheep up in his arms and then jump back up to the higher ground. But no! If he jumped down onto the ledge, the sheep would be frightened and run. But there was nowhere to run. It would be like Wile E. Coyote in those Road Runner cartoons. Legs would be moving, but gravity would eventually take over. So he would have to wait until the sheep ate all the grass and there was none left. After a few days the sheep would be literally half starved to death. When the lamb was too exhausted to move (and hence too exhausted to skydive), he would climb down and bring the little wooly sock material back up to the rest of the flock. Sheep are also completely defenseless. They don't even growl when they are in trouble. They're kind of like a lamb chop buffet for predators. Honestly, I goggled the word "sheep" for this devotional, and the very first thing that popped up was a picture of a coyote dragging off a sheep for dinner. Zip - another one gone. A herder has to be on his toes. Isn't that right, Ralph?
You want to know what really irks me? It's that the whole thing fits; at least in the eyes of God. I keep making the same dumb mistakes. I am defenseless, nervous and easily frightened. Most of the time, I really don't see things as they really are. I mean, I still want to be a lion. But I'd be a pretty poor lion. You know who else is a lion? "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8)
We are told that Christ has put a new heart in us - His heart. And that's the heart of a lion, right? So we should be able to go ahead and face down our adversary with our new courage, right? After all, the scripture says "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Go ahead and try it and you're pretty much a lamb chop dinner. You're still a little sheep facing down the big bad lion.Here's the rest of the story. You have to read the full scripture. It says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). The "submit yourself to God" part is pretty important. Then we can roar down the adversary, because like Simba, we have the King behind us. Then we have some power; even if we are only roaring lambs.
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