In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars

by Mark Batterson

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Faith is unlearning the senseless worries and misguided beliefs that keep us captive. It is far more complex than simply modifying behavior. Faith involves synaptogenesis. Faith is rewiring the human brain.

When we read Scripture, we are recruiting new nerve cells and rewiring neuronal connections. In a sense, we are downloading a new operating system that reconfigures the mind. We stop thinking human thoughts and start thinking God thoughts. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

When we read Scripture, we engage in spiritual tapping. Our brains are rewired in alignment with the Word, and we develop the mind of Christ. We think His thoughts.

What’s interesting is that psychiatrists posit that we’re born with only two innate fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. That means that every other fear is learned. And more important, that means that every other fear can be unlearned.

Don’t we have the same experience in our relationship with God? When everything is going great, it’s easy to keep our distance. But when we’re in fearful situations, we hang on to God for dear life.

First John 4:18 describes the end goal of our relationship with God: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.”

fearlessness!

Faith is the process of unlearning your irrational fears.

But lion chasers have learned to face those fears. They have unlearned the fear of uncertainty, the fear of risk, the fear of looking foolish, and the countless other fears that could hold them back. Their faith has been defragmented. They don’t necessarily know more than other people. But they have unlearned the fears that kept them captive. And they all did it the same way: by chasing their fears instead of running away from them. They exposed themselves to the very thing they were afraid of.

Lion chasers don’t hide from the things they fear. They chase lions into pits. They expose themselves to the sources of their terror because they know it is the only way to overcome them. Lion chasers have a high threshold for fear because they have built up fear immunity. I recently

Here is my point. The cure for the fear of failure is not success. It’s failure. The cure for the fear of rejection is not acceptance. It’s rejection. You’ve got to be exposed to small quantities of whatever you’re afraid of. That’s how you build up immunity.

So what are you afraid of? What allergens trigger a fear reaction? Those are the very things you need to expose yourself to. One of the greatest things that could happen to you is for your fear to become reality. Then you would discover that it’s not the end of the world. Your fear is worse than the actual thing you’re afraid of. And if you learn from every mistake, then there is no such thing as failure anyway.

Satan has two primary tactics when it comes to neutralizing you spiritually: discouragement and fear. He wants you to focus on past mistakes you’ve made. That is why he is called “the accuser of our brethren.” And the end result is a loss of courage.

The other tactic is fear. Satan wants to scare the heaven out of you. He wants to put you on your heels so you become reactive and defensive. That is why he is described as a prowling lion.

Courage is putting yourself into defenseless positions.

But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego took a stand. And that is what courage is all about.

Courage is doing what is right regardless of circumstances or consequences.

When you put yourself into defenseless positions, it sets the stage for God to show up.

Maybe it’s time to face your fear and take a stand.

The greatest moments doubled as the scariest moments.

don’t care how battle-tested or battle-scarred you are. I don’t care how crazy or courageous you are. You don’t come face to face with a five-hundred-pound lion without experiencing sheer terror. But the scariest moment of his life turned into the greatest moment of his life.

The same is true for all of us. If you take a second to reflect on your life, you’ll discover that the greatest experiences are often the scariest, and the scariest experiences are often the greatest.

It’s tough to describe, but there is something about fear that makes us feel alive. The adrenaline is pumping. Your reflexes are catlike. And time stands still. Benaiah must have been scared spitless when he was chasing the lion. But he was never more alive. And it was the fear he felt that made his “in a pit with a lion on a snowy day” story all the more fun to tell ex post facto. The scariest experiences make the best stories, don’t they?

So here is my question: Are you living your life in a way that is worth telling stories about?

If the truth be told, the alternative to fear is boredom.

“boredom is the root of all evil” because it means we’re refusing to be who God made us to be.

Don’t let mental lions keep you from experiencing everything God has to offer. • Half of spiritual growth is learning what we don’t know. The other half is unlearning what we do know. • It is the failure to unlearn irrational fears and misconceptions that keeps us from becoming who God wants us to be. • When we read Scripture, our brains are rewired in alignment with the Word, and we develop the mind of Christ.

The goal of life is not the elimination of fear. The

goal is to muster the moral courage t...

“When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

But sometimes the biggest problems present the greatest opportunities for God to reveal His glory and work His purposes. No one likes being in the pits or put out to pasture, but maybe God is developing character and honing skills that will serve you later in life.

Lewis went so far as to say that someday we’ll be more grateful for our prayers that didn’t get answered than the ones that did. The reason for this is simple: Many of our prayers are misguided. We pray for comfort instead of character.

We pray for an easy way out instead of the strength to make it through. We pray for no pain, when the result would be no gain. We pray that God will keep us out of pits and away from lions. But if God answered our prayer, it would rob us of our greatest opportunities. Many of our prayers would short-circuit God’s plans and purposes for our lives if He answered them. Maybe we should stop asking God to get us out of difficult circumstances and start asking Him what He wants us to get out of those difficult circumstances.

Maybe prayer is less about changing our circumstances than it is changing our perspective. Most of our problems aren’t the by-product of our circumstances but of our perspective on our circumstances. Maybe we need to quit praying safe prayers.

Let me share something I’ve learned from some of my personal struggles. When I get into a spiritual or emotional slump, it’s usually because I’ve zoomed in on a problem. I’m fixating on something I don’t like about myself or someone else or my circumstances. And nine times out of ten, the solution is zooming out so I can get some perspective. So how do we zoom out? The one-word answer is worship.

Reframing problems is about shifting focus. You stop focusing on what’s wrong with your circumstances. And you start focusing on what’s right with God.

Worship is zooming out and refocusing on the big picture. It’s refocusing on the fact that two thousand years ago, Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin. It’s refocusing on the fact that God unconditionally loves me when I least expect it and least deserve it. It’s refocusing on the fact that I have eternity with God to look forward to in a place where there is no mourning or sorrow or pain. Worship is forgetting about what’s wrong with you and remembering what’s right with God. It

Is it easy? Absolutely not. Nothing is more difficult than praising God when nothing seems to be going right. But one of the purest forms of worship is praising God even when you don’t feel like it, because it proves that your worship isn’t circumstantial.

The most important choice you make every day is your attitude. Your internal attitudes are far more important than your external circumstances. Joy is mind over matter.

How we feel isn’t determined by objective circumstances. If that were the case, silver medalists would always be happier than bronze medalists because of objectively better results. But how we feel isn’t circumstantial. It is perceptual. Our feelings are determined by our subjective focus.

“Your focus determines your reality.”

But I explained to them that how they feel is a result of what they focus on.

I think there are basically two types of people in the world: complainers and worshipers. And there isn’t much circumstantial difference between the two. Complainers will always find something to complain about. Worshipers will always find something to praise God about. They simply have different default settings. Paul and Silas were worshipers.

And when you are worshipful, your eyes are more open to notice the miracles that are happening all around you all the time. One way or the other, your focus determines your reality. The outcome of your life will be determined by your outlook on life.

All of us want every day to be a good day. But if every day were a good day, there would be no “good” days, because there wouldn’t be any bad days to compare the good days to. It’s the bad days that help us appreciate the good days.

Here’s what I’ve learned from personal experience. Sickness helps us appreciate health. Failure helps us appreciate success. Debt helps us appreciate wealth. And the tough times help us appreciate the good times. That’s just the way life is. I’ve also learned that our worst days can become our best days.

It is difficult to take life for granted when you’ve almost died. I enjoy life more because I’ve come to terms with my mortality. In the words of philosopher Walter Kaufmann: “It makes for a better life if one has a rendezvous with death.”3 I’m certainly not prescribing near-death experiences, but what Kaufmann says is true. I’m a different person because of my rendezvous with death.

It is adversity that gave Benaiah an opportunity to distinguish himself as a warrior. No adversity equals no opportunity. Without those extremely adverse conditions, Benaiah would have faded from the script of Scripture.

Adversity is often the seedbed of opportunity. Bad circumstances have a way of bringing the best out of us. Wild lions make valiant warriors just like rough seas make great sailors. Adversity is often a blessing in disguise.