Be Careful --
There May Be A Lion In The Way
By Dr. G.
Byrns Coleman
A Beautiful
Blanket Of Carolina Snow
Well, we certainly got the
snow on a recent Tuesday. I had wished and wished
(prayed!) for a beautiful blanket of snow. Not a
dangerous ice storm but a nice,
snuggly-sit-by-the-fire-and-drink-hot-chocolate
kind of snow.
I guess I got more than I
really wanted. I was not able to get out of my
driveway; I made it to the University where I teach
about noontime. But I must say the snow was indeed
beautiful and it brought back lots of memories, one
in particular.
A Memory From Days Gone By
This particular memory –
I was a college kid at Belmont College (Nashville,
Tennessee). That day in chapel the speaker was our
college president, Dr. R. Kelly White. His
Scripture for that day: II Samuel 23:20-23.
These verses tell about
Benaiah who is described as a valiant man and a
doer of great deeds, one of the renowned of King
David’s “thirty.” The part I
remember the most: “He also went down and slew
a lion in a pit on a day when snow had
fallen.”
Dr. White, in his gracious
and gentle manner of preaching, made Benaiah live
that day in chapel. We could just see this
courageous man who fought for King David, and he
slew a lion on a snowy day.
From there, Dr. White carried
us on a journey in our own lives with the
challenge, “be brave and courageous,”
“be willing to fight for what is right,”
“if you can’t measure up to the
‘three’ in David’s army, at least be
a part of the ‘thirty,’” but
“always be on the lookout – there may be
‘a lion in the way.’”
Satan -- The Lion
It’s been more than 50
years since I heard that sermon and I must admit I
don’t remember all the details, but to this
day I’m reminded that Satan comes at us from
all sides. Wherever we go, whatever we attempt for
God and good, there most probably will be “a
lion in the way!”
Temptations will come –
a lion in the way! Trials and tribulations that
tend to get us sidetracked from doing the will of
God – a lion in the way! Peer pressure from
all sides to drink, to do drugs, to test our
masculinity in various and sundry ways – watch
out, there’s a lion in the way!
Two other passages come to
mind. Genesis 4:6-7, before Cain kills Abel the
challenge comes from God: “If you do well,
will you not be accepted? And if you do not do
well, sin is couching [like a wild animal]
at the door; its desire is for you, but you must
master it.”
The bottom line is –
Cain, you can and must master it. Don’t let
evil get a handle on your life. If we jump to our
II Samuel passage and paraphrase it – you must
kill the lion that is in the way!
The other passage comes from
the New Testament – I Peter 5:8-9, “Be
sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls
around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to
devour. Resist him . . .”
So, after all these years, I
can still say, “Thank you, Dr. White, for
warning us young kids about the lions in our way.
We’ve tried to fight a good fight and finish
the course. Your messages from time to time in
chapel helped us along the way.
Thank you, Benaiah, for being
a man of great deeds, for setting a good example
for us to follow in our fight against the lions in
our way.”
About the
Author
G. Byrns Coleman is Professor
of Religion and Chair of Department of Religion
& Philosophy, Wingate
University, Wingate, NC
. He is also a member of Wingate
Baptist Church
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