AT ONE POINT IN THE WIZARD OF OZ, Dorothy, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow find themselves walking a portion of the yellow brick road through a dark forest. As they inch deeper and deeper into the forest, their thoughts of what lurks behind the next bend begin to create heightened levels of anxiety in their hearts. “Lions and tigers and bears” are all they can think about – dangerous creatures that would surely devour them. As you may remember, they do come into contact with one of these deadly animals, a lion. Though fearsome at first glance, when Dorothy stands up to him, the lion reveals his true nature to be one filled with cowardice.
As you and I walk this portion of our own yellow brick road, it’s easy for us to also find ourselves saying the same thing: “lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” We start looking around at the challenges we presently face as Christians in the West and wonder what’s around the bend – what danger might be lurking just ahead. Most of the time “the lion” never appears, or even when he does, he shows himself to be far weaker than we imagined.
I don’t mean to minimize what has been rapidly occurring in our culture over the past couple of decades—the erosion of truth, the rejection of biblical sexual ethics, the growing hostility toward Christians (evangelicals in particular), increasing racial di-vision, and deepening political tribalism (with Marxism at one extreme and nationalism at the other). No, I take each of these issues quite seriously. I also don’t pretend these issues couldn’t get worse and ultimately lead to scenarios that make living for Christ far more difficult. It’s simply that I have come to realize two things regarding these present and potential difficulties: 1) that if I put too much of my focus upon the “lions and tigers and bears,” then my heart easily weighs me down and I find myself getting angry or scared, and 2) that those Christians who have lost everything for Christ would tell me that he is worth it and that our God is faithful.
So, with that being the case, here is my prayer for you and me: that the Lord would give us a radical, supernatural reorientation of how we view our lives in this world. We would truly fix our minds upon unseen, eternal realities that are right here among us (2 Corinthians 4). We would turn often to our loving, omnipresent Father who delights in our voice (Psalm 46). We would live in the power of the Spirit of Christ who abides in us (2 Timothy 1). We would pray through the prism of the ongoing cosmic conflict between spiritual forces of good and evil – “your kingdom come” and “deliver us from evil” (Ephesians 6; Matthew 6). We would begin to see that life with the veil torn away looks far more like The Lord of the Rings than we could ever imagine (2 Kings 6). We would choose to center our identity in this world on the fact that we are redeemed, regenerated image-bearers of God who have been granted status as co-heirs with Christ of a kingdom that will soon descend upon the earth (Romans 8). While we are here, we have been called to serve as ambassadors of the King, who has asked us to bring an appeal of reconciliation to the world (2 Corinthians 5).
May the Lord answer this prayer that our exile here on earth may be filled with greater peace and joy, and more importantly, that through our exile Jesus may be glorified among our neighbors and the nations.
Soli Deo Gloria!