Becoming as Bold as a Lion

While at the Kenya National Library in Nairobi on one lovely morning in 2012, I picked Myles Munroe's The Spirit of Leadership - a book I had never heard about before. I came across in it a story that was so enlightening that I felt compelled to google it on the internet. Since then, I have reread the story a couple of times.

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 the sound was that of a kitten. But on nearing the animal, he found out it was a lion cub.

His first thought when he saw that it was a lion cub was the danger he would be in if he went close to it 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 the cub's parents returning, he decided to take the cub with him to the farmhouse in order to protect it from the vagaries of the jungle. He kept it together with his sheep. 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 farmer took out the sheep and the lion to the field as usual, they strolled to a river that nourished them with water. As they were drinking water, a large beast suddenly emerged from a nearby forest.

The beast roared with a loud voice that seemed to shake the forest. Stricken with fear, the sheep ran with breakneck speed toward the farmhouse. So did the lion that had grown up with them.

After the sheep and the lion were safely huddled together in the farmhouse, 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. 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. Didn't they see 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 forest, there emerged the same beast that had preyed on a lamb. It roared deafeningly.

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 going 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. But on further attempts, 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. Sure that the timid lion had acquired the boldness of a lion, the beast turned on its paws and loped back to the forest.

The lion looked back and surveyed the village it had grown up in. And then it resolved to follow the beast into the jungle, 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, I believe my version of the story still aptly captures the kind of person I have been and what I am aspiring to be.

Like I narrated in my previous story on this blog, I grew up as a timid boy - a weakness I carried into adulthood. I was more or less like a sheep. But I am now beginning to realize that I have been a lion all along. It's just that I have had the mindset of a sheep.

In recent weeks, while endeavoring to live out the life God intended for me, I have felt new stirrings in my soul. Stirrings of hope, of faith and of courage. It has truly been a transformative experience. I intend to continue following those stirrings to wherever they may lead.

My beloved reader, I exhort you to also acquire the spirit of a lion. The world out there is a jungle. There is a lot of bullying and intimidation. And for us to excel in it, we need to have the boldness of a lion. Why, then, should we cower from becoming the lions God intended us to be?

*********************
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 on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.