Facing Our Lions

This weekend I am serving as Experience Director at church. My job is simply to "be in charge." I'm usually very good at "being in charge." Leadership and organization are two of my spiritual gifts. Really, though, I'm sort of the "go to" person. If there's anything that needs to be done or taken care of, I'm the point person who gets the job done. I really enjoy this job and being able to use my spiritual gifts to help services run smoothly. One of the really cool things about being an ED is that I get to participate in and hear the message 4 different times over the course of a weekend. Sometimes God speaks to me in different ways over the course of the weekend. Tonight, it only took hearing the message once to hear God speak.

The message this weekend is about being afraid to take a risk. Dad introduced us to an Old Testament guy named Benaiah. I have to admit in all my years listening to Bible stories with a flannel graph, I didn't recall the story of Benaiah. (If you don't either, you can find him in the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 23.) Anyway, Benaiah went down in a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. He went down there with the PURPOSE of killing the lion. He went LOOKING for the lion to KILL it. Wow. How often do we go looking for our own lions, with the purpose of killing them out so that we can be better followers of Christ? If we're going to live up to our potential, if we're going to be all God created us to be, we have to kill out anything that hinders our walk with him. We have to risk facing the lion so that we can fulfill the purpose God has put us on earth to accomplish.

So what's your lion?

My lion is people. Two people actually, whom God has placed on my heart. The first person I need to go to and work out some things that have caused a wedge in our relationship, but I'm scared. The second person is someone I want to invite to church, but I'm scared. I'm praying about when these conversations need to take place, but I know they need to happen soon. I will not be afraid anymore. I will trust in Him, who gives me strength. I will face my lions.

Will you?