Chapter 1 of our study ends with the author listing seven “lion-chasing” skills we all need to master:

• Defying odds
• Facing fears
• Reframing problems
• Embracing uncertainty
• Taking risks
• Seizing opportunities
• Looking foolish

During our study, we will break down these skills and see how we can apply them to our own life.

Our hero, Benaiah was not the favored victor in any of the battles listed in 2 Samuel 23.  The battle with the Moab warriors was two to one, the Egyptian was 7 1/2 feet tall and armed with a spear, and well, a lion is a lion and fighting in a pit on a slippery slope did not improve Benaiah’s odds.

The important issue in these battles is not that Benaiah was outnumbered, but rather that he did not back down from the battle.  He had a job to do for his king, and he didn’t back away from his calling because the giant was too big or the lion too fierce. 

The Bible is filled with historical accounts of men and women who faced impossible odds and came out the ultimate victor.  Please open your Bible and read just a few of these accounts in light of Benaiah’s impossible battles.

David vs Goliath, 1 Samuel 17

Gideon vs the Midianites, Judges 6

Feeding the 5,000 with only five loaves & two fish, Matthew 14:13-21

Elisha and Axe Head, 2 Kings 6

Woman with the Issue of Blood, Matthew 5:21-34

It seems in each case, God DID NOT intervene until everything humanly possible had been done.  Why?  Is that not the question we ask ourselves every time a lion appears on the horizon?  So often we can see the crisis coming, a bad doctor’s report, a change in the management of our company, a letter in the mail, and yet no matter how hard we pray, cajole or beg the LORD, the problem doesn’t get better but WORSE!

Too often our prayers revolve around asking God to reduce the odds in our lives.  We want to avoid the conflict we see on the horizon.  We don’t want to fight the battle that will surely come if the lion gets close.  We would much rather whisper a shaky, “Thank you Lord” and have the lion slink away rather than to go to battle.  Perhaps Benaiah encountered other lions during his travels.  He saw a lion, but the lion went the other way.  He was safe, but was he changed?

Here is the problem with that thinking: How much more is God glorified when the odds are impossible?   Maybe God allows the odds to be stacked against us so He can reveal more of his glory.  That sounds easy UNTIL the lion shows up.

It was January 2003 when the phone rang.  It was my mom and she was looking at the photos taken during our recent family winter vacation.  She wanted to know “if Nicole (our oldest daughter – 16 at the time) had a lazy eye?”  “Of course not,” I responded, but it seemed the photos showed a marked sagging in Nic’s right eye.  At that moment, I felt a small kernel of uneasiness work its way into my belly.  A few hours later, Nicole arrived home, and I immediately accosted her in the kitchen wanting to see for myself if it was true.  Sure enough, her eye was drooping.  The little kernel became a small pebble.

We spent the next month going from the optometrist to the ophthalmologist to the neurologist.  With each doctor’s appointment came another test, another specialist.  The pebble in my belly was now a full sized rock.  We were scared.  We had called our pastor, the prayer team and our families.  Everyone was praying.  We desperately wanted the Lord to just make the problem go away.  We could see the lion on the horizon and we were desperately afraid.

Now every January our church holds revival services.  We didn’t miss a service that year.  It was at the altar at a revival service as we laid hands on Nicole, the Lord spoke.  He said just a few words, “She’s going to be okay.”  While I was thrilled to hear His words, I wanted to hear “She’s healed” or “It’s finished”  but I took what He did say and buried it my heart, but my belly still burned.

It was just a few weeks later we learned the sagging eye was not the result of a cyst or other benign growth.  It was cancer, alveolar orbital rhabdomyosarcoma; a pediatric muscle tumor located behind Nicole’s right eye.

Perhaps the Lord wants to grow a faith in us that is not dependent on our circumstances.  Our author tells us most of our problems are perceptual not circumstantial.  In other words, it is not the stuff going on in our lives that is our biggest problem, it is the deep fear God is not big enough to take care of our circumstances.

The entire family including my mom and dad went to the first appointment with the pediatric oncologist at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas.  The physician was a premier specialist with this type of cancer, and our hopes were high.  Like all oncologists, he didn’t use the words I wanted to hear, “cure” or “completely healed.”  He used terms like “good prognosis” and “quality of life.”

“Where was the Lord in those words?” I wondered.  “Where is the healing?”  My belly was on fire.

We knew the chemo for this type of cancer was long and involved.  I recall looking at David sitting there in the doctor’s office and saying, “If the treatment is 40 weeks, I am going to take that as word from the Lord – since 40 is a Biblical number of completion.”  Sure enough, the protocol was 40 weeks of chemotherapy and 6 weeks of radiation.  The cancer had a reasonable “cure rate” if the treatment didn’t kill you.  Our lion was here to stay for a while.

Over the next year, I would learn the cancer was not the biggest enemy to myself or my family.  It was fear.  Fear we would lose the battle.  Fear we would not be able to keep working to keep our insurance in place.  Fear we would lose sight of the needs of our youngest daughter.  Fear Nicole would lose her sight or her ability to bear children.  Fear….Paralyzing ….Crippling Fear was the real enemy.

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”  Isaiah 55:8-9

God’s plan for us existed long before we were ever born, and it is a good plan (Jer 29:11).  He has seen to every contingency.  He knows what might trip you up and what to do if you fall down.  Most of all He wants us to rely on Him unconditionally – regardless of our circumstances.

In 2 Kings 6, the Bible tells us of Elisha asking the Lord to float the borrowed ax head that had fallen into the river and sunk.  Our author points out what a ridiculous prayer it was, and yet the Lord saw fit in the midst of all of eternity to honor that request with a miracle.  The heavy axe head floated to the surface.  

Miracles are a tricky business.  They are the handiwork of an infinite God in a finite world.  We tend to want to rank them in “importance” as it relates to us, but ALL miracles are celebration worthy.  They are God’s constant reminder that He sees all and cares about all the aspects of our life.  

Over the course of the year of battling cancer, David and I stopped asking God to heal Nicole from the cancer.  It sounds counter productive when I see it in writing, so hear me out.  The Lord had already told us that Nicole was going to be “okay.”  We both felt those words were directed at the cancer, so we focused our prayers on the other circumstances of this battle.

We prayed for her future husband and the children they would have.  We prayed she would be healthy enough to attend her senior prom.  We prayed she would be well enough to attend youth group each week.  We prayed she would graduate on time.  We prayed she would maintain eyesight in the surgically ravaged right eye.  We asked she would be able to drive again.

In the face of life threatening circumstances, some of those prayers might seem frivolous.  But to us, those were the day to day miracles that kept us going.  The Lord answered every one of those prayers and many more.

The Lord wasn’t offended because we didn’t spend all of our energy focused on the lion living in our family room.  We had turned that bad boy over to Him.  We focused our energy on the daily bread miracles, and He answered in an amazing fashion.

God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.  He is infinitely BIG and able to fill any need or any role in our lives.  But I often wonder if his favorite role is that of Father.  I mean I have lots of roles in this world, but one of the most fulfilling is that of being a parent and now grandparent.  The Bible says He delights in his children!

So, can I say that we celebrate the cancer that ravaged our family?  No.  But I do celebrate the miracles God did during that time.  I also celebrate how He has used that cancer to touch the hearts of countless people through times of sharing and teaching.

“God wants you to get where God wants you to go more than you want to get where God wants you to go.”

“We are God’s workmanship created in Jesus Christ to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  Ephesians 2:10

The King of kings has gone before us.  To God be the Glory.

I hope you will get your journal out now and consider a lion you have met in the past.  There is great value in taking the time to celebrate what the Lord has already done.  It is very hard to see over the edge of the pit while you are in it fighting the lion!  But once the lion is slain, it is so important to stop and take a good look at ALL the Lord did — the “big” miracles and the “daily” miracles that sustained you through the battle.

Chapter 3 coming up next week!!!

I look forward to your comments, LT.