A Prowling Lion, ahum…. I mean Leopard

                                    

                         

 

                          

 

(Just a few glimpses from the roads of India)

A few weeks ago I was running on my normal walking path close to my house.  I was about 15 minutes from my home, and just past the local hospital and shops when I rounded a corner and could hear the low deep growl of an animal that I immediately could detect was not a street dog. The depth of the growl was so intense it brought immediate tension to my body, and I began searching the bushes and hedge line for what I was hearing. Only moments before my pr*yer walk was interrupted with me repeating the words “begera, begera, begera”.  I remember questioning to myself what those words meant and why all the sudden they were coming to mind.  I knew I had learned them, but couldn’t remember what they meant.  As my eyes fixed on the animal the noise was coming from, I immediately remembered what the word meant. LEOPARD.  It’s rare to see a leopard, but it’s even more rare to see one during day light hours.

It was as if the Lord had been preparing my heart with the Hindi words for what I was about to see. As quickly as I began to turn to run, I remembered the words of leaders’ wisdom, which had instructed us if we ever encountered a leopard, we shouldn’t run. We should keep our eyes on the leopard and back away. “A leopard usually won’t attack someone or something that is facing it. They attack from behind.”  I slowly, but quickly began walking backwards as fast as I could, all the while keeping my eyes fixed on the leopard.  He seemed to be distracted as he was holding a whimpering street dog in his mouth. Thankfully for me, he had found the dog before I came into his presence. He was occupied and seemed content.  Once I rounded the corner and was out of his sight, I began to run with the increased adrenaline in my body. I saw a man coming towards me and flagged him down, waving my arms furiously. He asked what was wrong, speaking fluently in English.  I was so out of breath and my heart still beating wildly in my chest with fear, I didn’t notice he was speaking English. I was consumed with trying to figure out how to tell this man in Hindi that I had just seen a leopard that I could barely speak and was stumbling over my Hindi words. Finally, I heard him repeating over my breathless attempts to speak, that He spoke English and I could just tell him in English.   As I explain for the danger ahead, he thanked me for the warning, seemed concerned, but said it was his only way home and he would continue on. Still in fear for my life, I decided to keep running toward my own home, and pr*y for this man, that at the moment I considered to be quite foolish, that G*d would protect him.

As I got home and reflected on the days events, I thought it was interesting that the many times I walk at night, or dusk, or near much “woodsier” places, I have never seen a leopard. It was when I was least expecting it that I saw the wild animal. I thought it was interesting that the experience came WHILE I was interceding and seeking the Father for the nations on my pr*yer walk. The fear I felt was so great, and immediately the path I loved and use often became a place I didn’t want to ever again walk on.  Isn’t it just like the enemy to try to steal what I love, and the place the Father often speaks to me as I pr*y? 1 Peter 5 says, “cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, stand firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.”

Interesting the analogy the Father used in His words. The fear one feels when in front of a wild animal like a leopard, or I am sure a lion, is so real.  There is nothing in me that would want to put myself in an experience like that again. And yet we are called to “stand firm” and resist. I thought about what that meant for me.  I think the enemy would love for me to run- to run away from the path I love to walk on, to run away from the place the leopard took in the road, to distract me from intercession and pr*yer, to steal my joy and focused time of pr*yer for the nations on this quiet walking path I use so often. He would love to steal that from me. And yet, as I read those words, I could hear the Father whispering in my ear, “stand firm”, and it was though G*d was saying, “DO NOT BACK DOWN. Keep on going. Keep on walking those paths; keep on pr*ying.  Like the man on the road, don’t be deterred by the fear or the experience of the enemy, but keep on pressing forward. Resist him and he will flee from you. Cast your anxiety on me, because I care for you. Others too are experiencing suffering and fear and hardship, but believe with me for greater things. STAND FIRM!”

I will walk on that road again. Not out of foolishness, but out of obedience and trust that I can cast my cares on G*D and He will care for me.  I believe there is more the Father wants to do on that path, words to be pr*yed, and intercession to take place, and so I will resist fear, and the “lion” and I will again walk on that path.

I love how the Father can use all things to teach us. As I recounted these events, I was reminded of my need to continue learn Hindi and to be more fluent. It’s two fold, I need to be able to tell someone when a leopard is around the corner in Hindi and have that be a natural overflow of my thinking and fluency of my tongue. But I was also reminded that in times of trauma and brokenness and fear, people speak best in their own native tongue.  As I counsel and work with people, as people discuss their pasts and brokenness, I need to be able to be fluent, so they can speak to me in their native tongue and I can understand. 

I am thankful for the HS that warns us and intercedes on our behalf as well.  I am thankful for those words “begera, begera, begera” running through my head moments before hearing and seeing the leopard. I am thankful for the wisdom and instructions of others that prepared me for this event (not to turn and run). The Father does use truth, and other’s experiences to prepare us and teach us. I am thankful that I am alive, but more than that, I am thankful for another lesson from the Lord. I am thankful for His words coming alive to me from 1 Peter, and that today I can “resist” the lion, stand firm, and walk on that road again with faith in the Father. He is worth it all.

And if you are like the 100 other friends asking if I took a picture, NO! I did not stop to take a picture of the leopard.