There are days when I sit down on my chair on the back porch and God whispers in the breezes that float across the pool. There are times I am walkng through a crowded mall and God troubles something inside, and causes me to pay attention to what He has to say. And then there are times I pick up a book and it seems as if God has written down words through the author just for me. In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day was God’s clarion call to me. “I love you. I know you are in a pit, and there are scary eyes staring at you. I’m going to do something great with that Lion and you. Hold tight.” From the first chapter I realized that God was trying to get my attention and speak comfort into my life through this book. How amazing is that?

The premise of “In a Pit” is this: In 2 Samuel 23: 20,21 a man named Benaiah chases a lion, who falls into a pit. Benaiah should have been running away…this is a lion, after all. But he doesn’t. He jumps into the pit with the lion. On the surface this looks like the wrong time and the wrong place. But it isn’t. Benaiah kills that lion. Later he is promoted through King David’s army as bodyguard and captain of the guard. That lion – which looked like Benaiah’s greatest nightmare – was his resume. God uses the “lions” in our life to build into us the character we need for the jobs He has planned for us. In other words, as Mark Batterson says, God is in the resume building business!

So here are the questions I am processing as a result of the first chapter of this book.
• If God puts us where we need to be, what does that say about where I am right now? I really do feel like there are lions circling around me in my life, and they scare me. I am trying to realize that being scared is the right reaction to a lion, but that doesn’t mean God wants to take the lion out of my life. He wants to use it to build my resume. Wow.
• What am I trying to put off to a better time? You know how this one goes. “I will do that for you, God, I will. But right now there is a lion I need to run away from. When I am safe and cozy back at the palace I will turn my attention to that.” What if God wants us to deal with that issue right now, in the pit with the scary lion? Maybe now is the opportunity that won’t be around later.
• What is already on my resume? What are the lions that I have already dealt with that God wants to use right now? God doesn’t waste learning experiences, and I need to reevaluate my past to identify the current opportunities.
• If I have the guts to face my lion, will I give the glory to God? No guts, no glory! Benaiah used that lion experience to later serve his king. Will I?
• How is my stewardship of my lion experiences? Am I using the imagination God has built into me? My mind? My hospitality? Stewardship of money is easy. Stewardship of my creativity? Now that take some thinking.

Finally, Mark Batterson unknowingly quoted my father by saying “Success is doing the best you can with what you have where you are.” Sure, down the road five or ten years we may be able to face the same lion with a different set of skills. But right now, in this place, God wants us to do the best we can with what you have. I can do that.