On Boys, Bears, and the Bondage We Choose

Several weeks ago while standing in front of the bear cage at the zoo with my boys and their friends, I observed an interesting phenomenon.   

The bear had his face up to the two inches of glass which separated him from our motley crew, looking with longing at the assortment of pint sized nuggets which stood just beyond his reach, and the boys... 

...well, instead of exhibiting an appropriate level of awe for the power and ferocity contained in the monster before them, they were roaring at him, flexing, strutting, pretending to punch his drooling jowls with their tiny fists, laughing and egging one another on in a miniature show of bravado.   

They were talking about what they would do to him if they could “just get in there” and how he would lose and lose and lose again to their mighty undercuts and karate chops. 

All that bravery from a little slab of glass!

And the thought came to me that that is very much the way we are with our enemy down here.  

A few years of ease, a taste of the blessings of freedom in Christ, and we sometimes forget that we are not strong in ourselves.

We neglect to be grateful for the protective benefits of living for God and begin to question our need for them--like boys at a bear cage.   

But unlike at the zoo, we CAN actually get into the pen with our enemy if we choose to.

And he is a thousand times more dangerous than a bear.  

1 Peter 5:8 "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."

But the trickiest thing about our adversary is that he doesn’t even look like a scary beast, although that is what he is.  

He tends to show himself more like the friendly host of a bright party filled with beautiful people, and laughter, and delicious food. He looks out from his prison on the outskirts of the barriers which God has mercifully provided for His children, and he beckons to all of us.

“Just give up your freedom and all the wide world and come share my cage instead. You'll be happy here.  Really.  I promise."

Your enemy points out your place at his table—the dream relationship you’ve constructed with the person you aren’t married to, the fantasies you could live online, the promotion you could attain by strategy and subterfuge, the satisfaction you could achieve through selfishness, the short, pleasant walk to the "life of your dreams".

And you start to imagine your world in a bear cage. 

And then you start to wonder if YOU are actually the one trapped behind glass and maybe HE is the one living in bountiful, glorious freedom.  

 Because that is what he keeps telling you--like a wild animal who is trying to convince a pack of little children to mistrust the Designer of the zoo, with all its silly moats and iron bars and safety glass, and to put their faith in him instead.  

Our enemy speaks lies out of his lust for our blood, not out of concern for us.  

Look underneath the pretty white tables. 

There are rows of the children he has gassed to death in Syria, and broken fathers and mothers who chased after “someone better” and ended up with broken hearts and the ashes of their former lives, the prisoners, slaves, and addicts who were promised freedom and given shackles.

And he is licking his chops over you.

 

At the zoo, two inches of impenetrable glass made what was actually a lethal killing machine seem funny and exciting to my boys.  It made their bravery exceed their skills in ways that never would have happened if they had been out in the real woods with that exact same bear.

Safety is an incubator for imagination—which can be a good thing when you are speaking of the creativity inventors, artists, and authors.  

But in the case of evil, the protective care of the Good Shepherd can sometimes cause hapless sheep to build IMAGINARY adventures in the lion cage which would prove fatal in real life. 

Isaiah 40:11  "He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young."

Security paints a rosy glow over everything in our lives to the point that even danger and badness can lose their horror.  

How I wish we weren't so fickle--that we could live our years nestled into blessing after blessing and remain wholehearted and true to our first Love!

Maybe some of you have so put on the mind of Christ that you are able to ever and always keep your hearts from straying.  Oh!  I want to be there too!

For me, it has been my tastes of suffering that have sharpened my senses.  Pain is what I have needed to waken me from futile pursuits and foolish imaginings, to remind me of my frailty and the relentless nature of evil.

Suffering causes me to refocus my gaze on the the amazing deliverance and redemption which God provides.  

I have wondered if this is what the passage in 1 Peter 4 means when it says, "Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin.  As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God."

Whoever has spent a season in the bear cage (and lives to tell about it), loses the taste for those adventures.  A few mauling blows from a grizzly and you don't really feel like strutting and bragging about how much fun it is to wrestle a bear.

I imagine that if David had met Bathsheba while he was hiding from his enemies in the cave of Adullam, he wouldn't have been nearly as tempted as he was in his season of wealth and ease and "peace".  

Same man, same God, all that was different was his perspective on reality.

Are we so different?

A steady trickle of “coming out of Christianity” memoirs written by former evangelicals has been hitting the market lately, and I’ve seen a number of well-brought up youths of my own acquaintance with their noses pressed up against the glass of the bear cage and a hunger in their eyes.

And I’ve trembled for them.

May I always be grateful for whatever it takes to keep me clinging to my Father's hand at the zoo.

And oh, my children!  May you be delivered from youthful arrogance, from the myth of invincibility, from the siren song of the caged world.  

May you always be loyal to your true Hero, the Tamer of the beast, the Possessor of the power you could never wield, the One who bought your freedom at a price you cannot fathom. 

May you be blessed with enough struggle to keep you humble and enough pain to keep you teachable.

And may the spiritual protection you have grown up under never, ever cause you to underestimate your enemy.

********************

O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
O sacred head, what glory, what bliss till now was thine!
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call thee mine.

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners' gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! 'Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.

 --lyrics to "O Sacred Head Now Wounded"