Through the Eyes of a Lion

1. Do not rely on the naked eye; choose to see the invisible spiritual reality.

Will we trust what we can see is there, or believe what God says is there?

The invisible battle. Every single moment of every day, we are engaged in a silent war of perspective. We easily get swept up in the mundane details of life—paying bills, drinking coffee, organizing the garage—while remaining completely blind to the spiritual reality surrounding us. To survive the catastrophic hits of life, we must look past what is temporary and fix our gaze on the eternal.

Surrounded by God. Like Elisha's servant Gehazi, who panicked when he saw an army surrounding them, we often rely solely on our physical sight. Elisha prayed for Gehazi's eyes to be opened, revealing a mountain filled with horses and chariots of fire. The angelic army didn't suddenly appear; they were there all along, hidden in plain sight.

The telescope of faith. Utilizing the telescope of faith allows us to perceive the invisible and do the impossible. Just as stars are present in the daytime sky even when light pollution or the sun obscures them, God's presence and promises remain constant.

• Shift your weight onto God's shoulders during trials.
• Recognize that what surrounds you is itself surrounded by God.
• Train your soul to look past the immediate, visible trouble.

2. You are uniquely designed, highly valuable, and destined for impact.

When you don’t recognize the value of what you have in your hands, you will always get from it far less than it is worth.

Uniquely valuable. You are not smart mud or a monkey wearing pants; you are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God. The ultimate measure of your worth is the price paid to redeem you: the precious blood of Jesus Christ. When you fail to recognize this extraordinary value, you allow the enemy to pawn your potential for a fraction of its worth.

A royal representative. You are a son or daughter of the King of Kings, deputized as an ambassador of heaven to offer pardons to a broken world. This is a glorious, heavy responsibility that elevates your daily life far above the ordinary. Even when doing laundry, writing papers, or sitting in traffic, you carry a supernatural power source within you.

The Great Commission. You have been entrusted with the ultimate rescue mission to share the gospel with a dying world. Your unique passions, talents, and connections are custom-built platforms designed to make waves and disrupt the status quo.

• You are an immortal being destined to live forever.
• The Holy Spirit inside you provides limitless spiritual energy.
• Your daily routine is part of a much larger, epic narrative.

3. Discerning your calling is a relationship of faith, not a magic map.

Discerning God’s calling is more a relationship than a route, more journey than destination.

No easy answers. There is no magic map that springs out of a backpack to tell you exactly which college to attend, which person to marry, or which job to take. While the Bible functions as a reliable GPS for our souls, it intentionally leaves room for tension and mystery. God often keeps us in the dark about the specifics to build our faith muscles.

Stepping into obscurity. When the author felt a persistent nudge to move his family from sunny, comfortable California to the freezing wilderness of Montana, many well-meaning people tried to stop him. They warned him that "cows die there" in the winter and that leaving a thriving megachurch ministry made no sense. Yet, by embracing obscurity and stepping out on a hunch, he watched Fresh Life Church explode into a multi-campus movement.

Providential fingerprints. The fingerprints of God are rarely visible in real-time; they are usually only recognized in the rearview mirror. When you delight yourself in the Lord, He aligns your desires with His will, allowing you to move forward with confidence.

• God cares more about who you are becoming than where you are going.
• Flight only comes after the fight; struggles develop your wings.
• Trust God's providence to connect the dots of your life.

4. Grief is a turbulent wave, but Jesus has turned off the dark of death.

Hurting with hope still hurts.

Sorrow upon sorrow. When five-year-old Lenya suddenly died of an asthma attack just days before Christmas, the author and his wife were plunged into "sorrow upon sorrow." This biblical phrase describes grief as unpredictable, violent waves crashing onto a shore. Grief is a powerful, mind-altering state, and attempting to rush through it or mask the pain only stunts true healing.

A furious Savior. God is not happy about our suffering; He is outraged by it. When Jesus stood at the tomb of His friend Lazarus, He didn't offer cheap platitudes; He wept and groaned with a visceral, holy rage against death. Jesus ultimately defeated this great enemy by dying on the cross and rising from the dead, stripping death of its permanent power.

The ultimate victory. Because of the resurrection, death has been abolished, meaning its sting is gone and its final destruction is guaranteed. We do not have to put a happy face on our pain, but we can stand firm knowing that the grave does not get the last word.

• Expecting a grieving person to quickly "bounce back" is unrealistic and harmful.
• Jesus took the bullets out of the devil's gun, leaving only blanks.
• God always gets the last word and will restore what was stolen.

5. Your physical body is a temporary tent awaiting a glorious resurrection upgrade.

Death, as it pulls away our sackcloth canopy, will reveal to our wondering eyes the palace of the King in which we shall dwell forever, and, therefore, what cause have we to be alarmed at it?

Breaking camp. The apostle Paul, a tentmaker by trade, compared our physical bodies to temporary tents used on a camping trip. Tents naturally get beat up, weathered, and eventually become irreparable. Death is simply the act of breaking camp, pulling down the canvas, and moving into a permanent, glorious house built by God in the heavens.

The intermediate state. When a believer dies, their soul immediately enters paradise, leaving the physical tent behind. This intermediate state is an out-of-body experience of pure joy and adventure, completely free from sickness, asthma, and pain. Meanwhile, the physical body left in the cemetery is merely "sleeping" in a dormitory, awaiting the final wake-up call.

Resurrection power. On the day of resurrection, God will reclaim our physical bodies from the grave, transforming them into immortal, powerful, and perfect versions of themselves. We will touch, recognize, and celebrate with one another in physical reality, mocking death's temporary victory.

• You are not your body; you will never actually be buried in a cemetery.
• Heaven is a real, physical place of activity, laughter, and exploration.
• The resurrection is God's way of talking trash to the grave.

6. When your strength is entirely depleted, wait on the Lord and cue the eagle.

The struggles and hardships of this life are more than anyone can bear.

Reaching the breaking point. No matter how strong, disciplined, or spiritually mature you are, you will eventually run out of gas. Even the greatest heroes of scripture—David, Abraham, Elijah, and John the Baptist—experienced severe emotional breakdowns and crises of faith. When tragedy strikes, your heart will fail, and you will find yourself completely depleted of natural strength.

Supernatural jet pack. Isaiah the prophet promised that those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength and mount up with wings like eagles. This is a standing invitation to "cue the eagle" and receive a fresh infusion of the Holy Spirit. When the author was spiraling in grief at his daughter's grave, crying out to God brought a literal and spiritual eagle encounter that restored his soul.

Taking courage. Courage is not a passive feeling; it is an active choice to take heart from God's hand. By waiting on the Lord and believing in His goodness, we receive the supernatural power required to keep pedaling through the pain.

• Admit your weakness to unlock God's perfect strength.
• Do not let shame or regret paralyze you in the dark.
• Sunday is coming, even when Saturday feels endless.

7. Hope is a steadfast anchor connected to heaven by the Holy Spirit.

There’s no such thing as a wireless anchor.

A secure connection. Hope is not wishful thinking; it is a confident, joyful expectation that the best is yet to come. The Bible calls this hope an anchor of the soul, but an anchor is completely useless unless it is physically connected to the ship. Our anchor, Jesus, has entered the heavenly sanctuary behind the veil, securing our souls to eternity.

The rope of the Spirit. The connection between our hearts on earth and our anchor in heaven is the Holy Spirit. This unbreakable chain ensures that we are constantly being winched toward our true home. When we feel disconnected or adrift, we must be filled afresh with the Spirit to pull the slack out of the line.

The power of the local church. Gathering with other believers to worship is like plugging into a spiritual power source that alleviates the pressure of our pain. It is crucial to establish these spiritual rhythms and put down deep roots before the storm hits.

• Hope is as vital to our survival as oxygen is to our lungs.
• You are directly connected to loved ones in heaven through the Holy Spirit.
• Train for the trial you are not yet in by staying planted in God's house.

8. Your pain is a microphone that amplifies your message to a hurting world.

Pain is a microphone. And the more it hurts, the louder you get.

A terrible privilege. Suffering is not an obstacle to your calling; it is the very platform that amplifies your voice. When you are crushed like an olive in the press of adversity, the resulting anointing oil makes you incredibly effective. People who ignore your sermons in the sunshine will lean in to watch how you handle the dark.

A passport to the broken. Your pain acts as a passport, granting you access to locked hearts and places you could never otherwise enter. By choosing to minister to others while you are still bleeding, you prevent your suffering from being wasted. The author used his agonizing loss to share the gospel with the very paramedics and doctors who tried to save his daughter.

Redeeming the hell. God is a master at sabotaging the devil's plans, turning your deepest trials into your most powerful testimonies. When you offer your empty, broken self to Him, He fills you with incredible power to bring sight to the spiritually blind.

• Do not be selfish with your pain; others need the comfort you receive.
• The devil will regret attacking you when your trial becomes your platform.
• Your tears are seeds that will yield a harvest of righteousness.

9. Embrace the holy groaning of homesickness for your true eternal homeland.

You have been made for a person and a place. That person is Jesus, and the place is heaven.

An ache you can't shake. Every human being carries a deep, persistent longing for a home they have never physically visited. We try to satisfy this ache with earthly pleasures, nostalgia, or even destructive addictions, but nothing on this fallen planet can fill the void. This "future nostalgia" is a holy homesickness designed to keep us from settling down in a foreign land.

A compromised system. Like a corrupted video game code, our current world has been warped by sin, causing all of creation to groan in anticipation of a reset. We live in an extended "Saturday"—the painful space between God's promises and their ultimate fulfillment. Leaning into this groaning keeps our spiritual focus sharp and prevents us from being hypnotized by the world.

Living on tiptoes. To live with "earnest expectation" means to stand on your tiptoes, eagerly craning your neck for the return of King Jesus. By setting your mind on things above, you cultivate a healthy detachment from the trivialities of earth.

• Earth is merely a temporary layover; your true citizenship is in heaven.
• Groaning is the healthy soundtrack of a pilgrim on a journey.
• The end of this life is not a dying hour, but a birth hour.

10. Face your deepest fears directly by running toward the roar.

When you run from things that scare you, you move toward danger, not away from it.

The trap of fear. Male lions use their terrifying roars to startle prey, driving them to run away in panic—straight into the waiting claws of the silent lionesses. Our natural instinct to flee from what frightens us often leads us directly into danger. To defeat fear and unlock our destiny, we must override our emotions and run toward the roar.

Staring down the nightmare. In the wake of their daughter's death, the author and his wife chose to face their grief head-on rather than hiding from it. They unpacked her clothes, looked at her photos, and embraced the agonizing memories to empty the venom of the trial. By refusing to let fear dictate their schedule, they ran toward the very holidays and places that threatened to destroy them.

Persevering through failure. Running toward the roar requires a willingness to fail, make mistakes, and endure the unglamorous work of secret discipline. True bravery is not the absence of fear, but the determination to move forward while your knees are shaking.

• Turning your back on your calling leads to the slow death of your dreams.
• God is never intimidated by the giants or nightmares that terrify you.
• Your greatest victories will be won on the battlefields you wanted to avoid.

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