Walk with the lions

Through the years I have viewed wild animals in several different countries in Africa and Asia, so I don’t really look for opportunities to go on a safari. However, through our international projects at the foundation our participants often get to go on photo safaris to view the animals. I usually don’t participate if I don’t have to—not because I don’t want to be with our folks, but it is expensive to see animals, and I have seen plenty.

Recently in Zimbabwe, our team taught the SERVE principles of our company to the leadership of a game park, and they offered us a free “event” because they were so pleased with our sharing with them. One of the “events” was a walk with the lions. I was intrigued and asked for more information, and I found out that this was the only place in the world where one could walk with lions in the wild—no cages, no fences. This was an opportunity that I could not pass up.

So six other people and I met at dawn for our orientation about the walk. We would be walking with two three-year-old lionesses that had been taken away from their mothers at three weeks of age and raised by three handlers at the game park. They are still wild animals even though they have been around humans all their lives. We were instructed on how to act around the lions—never approach them from the front (they get very angry about this and show their teeth—as I experienced first-hand), always walk beside them so they can see you and never in front of their front legs, don’t make quick movements or loud noises, etc. 

They gave us a walking stick—that was the only “weapon” that the handlers had also—and we were on our way. During the walk we took turns walking beside one of the lions (see photos below). You have to know that I don’t like cats—all my family knows this—but I reached down and rubbed the back of the lioness. In a weird way I think the lioness actually liked that. But, as I walked with the lion, I could not help but think about lions in the Bible. I don’t know of a verse where a lion is presented as a gentle creature to pet. Every instance that I could think of was one that referred to the prowess of a lion or the roar or the bite—that gave me the creeps, and here I was walking with the lion. I was sane, but maybe not smart.

All of a sudden the two lions took off running at full speed and just as quickly they stopped and froze a few hundred yards from us. The handler pointed with his stick at a small herd of antelope. He told us not to worry, that the lions would not make a kill today as they had just taken down a wildebeest three days before and they usually only ate every five days—I was immediately happy that I did not wait two days to take my walk with the lions!

I had several good take-aways from this experience. One of them was some good photos to show the grandchildren, but the best one was this: I Peter 5:6-11 has been a good example of how I am supposed to act before the almighty God of the universes. But after being that close to a lion, verse eight really became so much clearer to me: “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Are we more afraid of lions than we are of the devil?