Becoming as Bold as a Lion

While at the Kenya National Library in Nairobi one lovely morning in 2012, I dipped into Myles Munroe's The Spirit of Leadership. A story in the book inspired me so much that I later on felt compelled to google and re-read it. It truly was inspiring.

As the story goes, there once lived in a certain village a farmer who was also a shepherd. He was out in the field grazing his sheep one evening when he heard the sound of an animal coming from the end of the field. At first, he thought it was a kitten. But on nearing the animal, he found out it was a lion cub.

His first thought was the danger he would be in if he went close to the lion cub and its parents returned while attending to it. He therefore watched the cub from the safety of a leafless tree.

When the sun began to set without parents of the cub returning, he took it to the farmhouse and kept it together with his sheep so as to protect it from the vagaries of the jungle. And for the next six months, he hand-fed it with milk.

After the cub grew into an energetic ball of shiny muscle, the farmer began taking it out to the field with the sheep. Not surprisingly, the cub came to behave and bleat like a sheep, even when it developed the body of a lion. It became a sheep by association.

One day when the sheep and the lion were in the field, they strolled to a river to drink water. A large beast then emerged from a nearby jungle and roared so menacingly that the sheep ran in fear of their lives to the farmhouse. So did the lion that had grown up with them.

The farmer, who was watching the incident from the safety of a leafless tree, saw the beast holding a lamb in its blood-drenched jaws after the others had fled. That made him know danger had returned to his part of the village.

Several weeks went by without any further such incidents. But at one time when the lion went to the river to drink water, it had a panic attack when it saw something in the water that resembled the beast that had preyed on a lamb.

Alarmed like an antelope that had spotted an approaching predator, the lion bolted to the farmhouse. It then wondered why the sheep hadn't also scampered for safety. Hadn't they seen the beast?

A few days later while the sheep and the lion were lapping water in the river, the lion again saw the beast in the water and began to tremble with fear. Then out of the jungle, there emerged the same beast that had preyed on a lamb. It roared menacingly again.

The sheep hotfooted it back to the farmhouse. But the lion stood in confusion because it was now seeing two beasts: the real one and the one in the water which was its own reflection. It thought it was about to be killed.

However, as if to encourage the lion to be bold, the beast continued roaring. The lion attempted to imitate the beast yet all that came out of its mouth was the sound of a sheep. On further attempts though, it started to sound like a lion.

No sooner had it began to sound like a lion than it felt new stirrings in its body. It felt strong, confident and courageous. Convinced that the timid lion had acquired the boldness of a lion, the beast turned on its paws and loped back to the jungle.

The lion turned its head and surveyed the village it had grown up in. Then it looked at the jungle where the beast had gone and decided to follow it, for it knew its time had come to be all that it was intended to be - a lion king! End of story.

Well, I haven't retold the story as eloquently as Myles Munroe did in his book, The Spirit of Leadership. All the same, my version of the story aptly captures the kind of person I have been and what I am aspiring to be.

I grew up as a timid boy, a weakness I carried into adulthood. But I am now realizing I have the potential to be a lion. Recently, I have been feeling new stirrings of courage that I intend to make part of my nature so that I acquire the boldness of a lion as God intended me to do.

My beloved reader, I urge you to also be bold. The world out there is a jungle. There is a lot of bullying and exploitation. And for us to excel in it, we need to have the boldness of a lion. So strive to roar as only you can.

*********************
RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on becoming as bold as a lion, you might also enjoy another one on "Developing Hope & Optimism" which I wrote a few years ago. Just click that link in blue to dive straight into the story.