Yesterday I was reading a story online about some young lions who were abandoned by their mother—it happens occasionally in Africa, but you don’t hear about it much. Fortunately, these two young sister lions were discovered by zoologist, Kevin Richardson (no, not THAT Kevin Richardson of the back Street Boys—seriously? Your age is showing)—otherwise known as, “The Lion Whisperer. He rescued them (apparently their mother actually tried to drown them—I guess abandonment wasn’t dramatic enough), raised them, and eventually released them back out into the wild. And, soon discovered that even though they are adapting quite nicely to life on the African plains—they still come when he calls and treat him like a very honored part of the family! There are even others who have joined the pride (male lions included) who have taken Kevin in as one of their own and aren’t the least bit hostile toward him.
What an awesome story!
But they don’t always turn out this way. A lot of times when animals are rescued in the wild we don’t really know what to do with them. It’s one thing to rescue them and raise them back to health, but teaching them what they need to know to thrive in their own environment and releasing them back into the bush to be the mature and majestic creatures God created them to be? Usually doesn’t work. It’s far more common to see them rescued and then placed into captivity where they might appear mature and well fed, but they are actually stunted and often unhappy.
Lions weren’t meant for captivity.
And neither were we.
When I think about how hopeless I was without Christ, I am ever grateful that He rescued me from my sins and adopted me to be a part of his own family!
But it doesn’t stop there.
Or shouldn’t. To become a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ, we must also be raised to spiritual maturity and released to serve others to the glory of God and the building up of His kingdom.
If we stop at ‘rescue,’ we might as well live in a zoo where the world can come by, point at us and laugh. “Look at those Christians! They are so silly. They have their own little culture and language and styles. But they can’t even function outside the protective walls of their church.”
How sad.
But, it doesn’t have to be that way. Stay tuned for part two of this little series on “Christians Gone Wild.” Just kidding. How about, “The Church Whisperer?” No? Ok, let’s just stick with “Rescue, Raise, and Release,” and part two will be on Raise.