Lessons from the "Lounge Chair" #3 - (I think I have now graduated from the lounge chair to the desk, praise the Lord)

Training to be a Lion Tamer
*This post was written about 2 weeks ago- I am just delayed in posting it*
I haven’t updated for a while; I am sorry. Life has changed quite a bit. In coming home, I have had more hours to think and pray than I could have ever asked for. I have also had the blessing of the great counsel of pastors and leaders and the Holy Spirit himself speaking into my life. It was with much time and prayer that I made the decision to resign from my current company and return to India under another avenue to pursue work. (You should have received this update via email and my November newsletter.) Change can be intimidating. Sickness and a heart problem can be intimidating. Unknowns and future uncertainties can be intimidating.

My doctor has been very positive about my health and his belief that within a few months I will be symptom free and back to my “normal” life and routine.  Today, I still have to rest quite a bit, and while I am feeling better than I was when I returned home, I have to fight from focusing on what I can’t do to focusing on what I can do. Our perspectives are so key in our mentalities and walk with the Lord.  Philippians 4 doesn’t tell us to focus on the what-ifs, or the maybes, or the too-bads, He calls us to focus on a Higher perspective and Chri$t-like mentality.

I often see what the Lord is speaking to my heart. Sometimes I can see the voice of the enemy as a lion roaring. He only comes to seek, kill, and destroy. His voice is loud and intimidating. It roars the fears of uncertainty and unknown.  Today I saw the lion.

Today I attempted to drive myself to meet a supporter to follow up. A few weeks ago, I had started driving myself again, only to come to the conclusion my body wasn’t quite ready for that much focus and energy.  Who knew our senses are so intricately related to our heart?  (There’s a sermon right there.)  I took two more weeks to lay low, rest, and continue recovering. Seeing improvement and feeling ready, I attempted to drive again today.  It was ok, but I came home ready to go straight to bed and exhausted. It’s not that I can’t drive or leave the house, it’s that after an hour or so, I am so fatigued that I feel like I can hardly walk and breathing becomes labored and difficult. And the lion begins to roar. “You won’t be able to go back to India! What if you never get better? What if you can never drive again?”

The Holy Spirit grabbed my attention and said, “Listen to the voice! Distinguish the difference in the voices you hear!  These words don’t line up with my word. These words are not mine. This is just the lion talking. I call you to take what seems like reality and to see with the eyes of faith, to call what isn’t into being, and to see from my perspective (2 Cor 5:7.)  God reminded me of Daniel in the Lions’ den and how He closed the mouth of the lions and protected His servant. I felt the Lord saying to me, “I am training you to be a lion tamer. You must learn to distinguish the voices and close the mouths of the lions. Your authority in Chri$t closes their mouths so that their roar must cease!”


I don’t know what lion’s lying roar you are facing today, but I know that far too often we listen to the enemy’s roar, as opposed the THE Lion whose roar shuts the mouth of all the others. I know His word is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and that it never returns void. I know that on days when I question if I will ever drive again, I can cling to the heavenly perspectives of Chri$t and remember to walk by faith and not by sight.  I pray if you are reading this today, Je$us would gently take your chin, and tilt your face upwards that you might meet His gaze and see from His perspective.  With Chri$t’s authority we can tame the lions’ roar.

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