Deny or Be Dinner

Lions kill by suffocation. They don't even rip apart the skin until the victim can no longer breathe. Knowing this it is a wonder that anyone would want to jump in a lion's den. I'm referring to the story in the Bible of Daniel and the lion's den. If you don't know Daniel survived being thrown in the den all night when God sent an angel to shut the mouths of the lion. That's the short version anyway.

No one wants to get in that den. We are thrown in by some happening in our lives and we grasp at the air the entire way down. Somehow we are to just put that blind faith in the fact God is going to keep us alive and someday we are going to get to climb out of the den and face the sunlight once again. Sometimes it sure seems dark down there.

At church they asked the children what they feared the most. The answers ranged from aliens to darkness to elephants stomping on their head. The crowd giggled. I yearned for that innocence. When do we realize the bigger fears of life? But, being in the middle of that fear in that lion den it seems fear fades somehow into strength because you just have no other choice. If a tree is about to fall on my head I will probably muster up the strength to run really fast away from its wrath.

Deny or be dinner. Daniel was put in the den because he did not deny God. So it puts up a strange correlation that in that den I wonder are we in there because maybe God wants to teach us a lesson. Deny or die in another term. Letting that evil part die off? If one is to deny the lesson they will eventually die from the evil root anyway.

I've heard it said a thousand ways that God has a plan for us. Sometimes when I look at the lion's den in Japan I fall to my knees and wonder where this fits in the plan. There is no comparison of fear when it comes to aliens versus a tsunami killing thousands of people. I cannot wrap my mind around it so I chose to just keep walking and holding on to that faith that it has to be in the plan for reasons I don't understand. As a reporter I always emotionally distanced myself from tragedies. Of course it tugs at you, but for me it shields me somehow.

So the lion's den might be a different place for many people. No matter what it is the constant is the gnashing of lions' teeth and the roaring around you. How we choose to deal with it is our choice. Deny or be dinner. Run or learn. Crouch or survive. Letting the lions suffocate you is only an option when they eat your faith. And, you must remember they cannot eat your faith because angels will close their mouths and allow you to survive until the sunshine peers into the den once again.