Who Wants a Safe Lion?

Suggested Reading: Exodus 33:12-23

In C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Peter, Susan, Edmond, and Lucy meet the talking Beavers upon entering Narnia together for the first time, Mrs. Beaver begins to tell them about Aslan, the great Lion, the Son of the Great Emperor across the sea. When the children ask if Aslan is safe, Mr. Beaver responds, "Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you." Though the Beavers knew that Aslan was not "safe" they longed for his return anyway. Not because he was safe, or even because he was powerful enough to save them from the wicked White Witch, but because he was good.

In Exodus 33, Moses had just returned from the mountain where he had received God's law to discover that the people had already built themselves an idol and begun to worship it. Moses was rather harsh with the people, killing many of them in retribution for their betrayal and idolatry. After a time of uncertainty, Moses was reassured by God that God would continue to accompany them to the Promised Land, but then Moses made a request of God: "Please, let me see your glory." To which God responded, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name Yahweh before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." (Exodus 33:18-19, HCSB).

I don't know what Moses had in mind when he asked God to show him God's glory but the opportunity allowed God to teach Moses something very important. God's most magnificent attribute, God's glory, is not God's miraculous power, God's might, God's wisdom, God's sovereignty, or even God's perfect justice. God's most magnificent attribute -- God's glory -- is God's goodness, God's capacity for being gracious and compassionate.

As followers of Christ, we are called to be perfect, just as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48), but even this command of Jesus is given in the context of loving enemies and tax collectors. Our call to be like Jesus, to imitate our Father in Heaven, is not just a call to be holy and just. Our call is to imitate God in all God's glory -- to be good and gracious and compassionate, to love the enemy and the sinner. We are to follow the example of Jesus from John 8 who, confronted with a woman caught in the act of adultery, did not condemn her, but saved her from the self-righteous and scheming mobs and then told her, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore" (John 8:11, HCSB).

If you want to be like Jesus, if you truly want to be conformed to the image of Christ, then do not be satisfied with being wise, or just, or even having Spirit-enabled abilities to heal and prophesy. Strive to be good. Then, maybe when the world sees us, they will know that we don't condone the sin they live in, that being around us is not "safe" because their world may be turned upside down, but they will also yearn for the Presence that comes with us because they can tell, through us, that God is good.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Sister-Wife

Suggested Reading: Genesis 12:10-20

Growing up, one of my favorite books was The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The first time I read it, as Edmund accidentally stumbled into Narnia while following his sister Lucy, and then as he encountered the White Witch who wooed him with Turkish Delights, I remember thinking, Don't trust her Edmund, she's lying to you. She spoke to him in a very sweet, reassuring way while promising him the chance to be king of Narnia with her as his queen. But you knew, reading that scene, that when he came back with his brother and sisters she would turn on him and kill them all. You just knew that her actions would not match her words.

I had a similar experience the other morning reading through the book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter 12, Abram (not yet Abraham) was taking his wife Sarai to Egypt to survive a famine. On the way there he said, "Look, you are a very beautiful woman" (Genesis 12:11, NLT). I remember thinking, I wonder if that is why she goes along with Abram's plan to call her his sister. I mean, a lot of women would want to cooperate with a man who starts off that way, especially if you are already in love with him. Abram went on to explain that Sarai was so beautiful that she put his life in danger because the Egyptians would kill him in order to have her for themselves. So, saying she was his sister was the only way to keep him alive.  But just a few verses later, Abram had given up his beautiful wife in order to keep up the charade and save his own skin.

The story reminded me that even the "best" of us can find it difficult at times to make our actions match up with our words. We talk a good game, telling people how much we care about them, promising them that we will care for them in one way or another, but we find it much harder to follow through and match up our actions with our beautiful sounding words. We say we love someone but we never actually express interest in their lives. We tell someone how important they are to us but then never make any time for them in our lives. But we also do the same thing in our relationship with God. We insist that we love God but aren't willing to spend 20 minutes in prayer. We talk about how important it is to share the Gospel with people but we never actually open our mouths when we have the chance. We argue about how it is the church's job to care for the poor rather than the government's, but then we never make plans to fulfill that purpose.

Rather than being discouraged at our own lack of consistency or using our "hypocrisy" as a reason to keep our mouths shut, let's work on making our actions match our words. Go visit that person you claim to care about. Set aside some money to provide for someone in need. Whatever your problem area in matching your actions with your words, don't back down from saying the right things; just make a plan to do the right things, too.