Maybe just one more animal story? When I was younger we used to live in an area of Nairobi called Buru Buru. At the time this area was considered on the outskirts of town. Now it has been engulfed by hundreds of other housing estates. We used to catch the school bus for our daily one hour commute to Rosslyn Academy located on the other side of town. Bus rides were usually pretty boring providing a great time to catch up on homework, especially when heavy traffic snarled the slender roads meandering through the haphazardly constructed apartment complexes.
One day as we neared the bus stop close to our house, we encountered heavy traffic next to the soccer field. The soccer field, or football pitch, as we called was about 2 miles from home. We rarely experienced heavy traffic in this part of Nairobi. To further pique our curiosity there were hundreds of pedestrians milling around the football pitch. This would be normal if a match was actually taking place, but there were no players on the field. As we inched our way along the edge of the field we shouted out the window: "Kuna nini?" (What is it?) The answer rather surprised us. "Kuna Simba." For those of you who have watched the Lion King you will recognize the name Simba. It's Swahili for lion.
"Simba? Kweli?" (A lion? Really?)
A different pedestrian responded with glowing affirmation. "Ndiyo!" (Oh yes.)
Hardly able to believe our ears we jumped off the school bus, ran home, dropped off our bags, and shouted to mom, "we're going to the soccer field!" To which she responded something to the effect: "To play soccer?"
"No mom! To see the lion."
By the time we showed up at the soccer field, the crowd was enormous. More people showed up for the lion that day than has ever turned out for the local teams in the neighborhood. Some people pointed. Others talked of killing it. A few imagined its adventure during the night to find the heart of Buru Buru's primary soccer field. My brother and I just wanted to see the lion!
Much to our disappointment the lion was asleep in a hedge on the far side of the field with only the tip of its tail sticking out. We waited for hours until the Kenya Wildlife Service arrived with darts and a tranquilizer gun to drug our renegade lion and return him to the wild.
The next day the story hit the front page of the paper. Apparently, the lion was somewhat senile and had become disoriented on his way into town. His stomach took the better of him and he found himself outside the apartment of a lady cooking stew. Without waiting for her to offer him anything, he had simply knocked the door down but placing his full weight against the rusty hinges. Moments later the chef scattered as the lion lapped up her entire pot. This made him rather sleepy so he retreated to the safety of the nearby soccer field. A few hours later some soccer players came to kick the ball around. One man got the fright of his life when he went after the misdirected shot into the hedge.
Simba! Simba! he called as everyone ran away at full speed.
Since my wife is including a discipleship lesson in all of her blog entries this month, let me try my hand at one. Here it is: the Bible talks of two lions. The lion of Judah, Jesus Christ. And the counterfeit lion, the devil. Both come to the doors of our lives. One knocks gently promising life, and life to the fullest, for those willing to fling wide the door. The other kicks down the door to steal, kill, and destroy--our dreams, our health, our families, etc... inspiring fear and disorder. How do we keep the latter out? One sure way: a continual surrender of our lives to the former.
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