3 Lessons from a Leopard

After over 2 decades living on the wonderful continent of Africa, as we recently headed off for a few days break to the Pilanesberg Game Reserve in South Africa, the only one of the ‘Big Five’ African animals I was yet to see in the wild, was the Leopard.

Elephant - tick ✔️

Rhinoceros - tick ✔️

Buffalo -tick ✔️

Lion - tick ✔️

Leopard - ❌

But so far the Leopard had been elusive.

(to clarify, there was one night drive I was on many years back where the Ranger guide said that two little reflections we could see way in the distance, off his super-strong spot light, were right where he knew a Leopard had been spotted and that little pair of reflective specks would probably be him.  But do I count that?  Maybe … Maybe not.  I certainly have not seen one fully in daylight clarity or even closer up under a night spotlight to be able to be sure to say without a doubt that I have seen a Leopard.)

Various friends have made even a short visit to Africa just for a couple weeks and managed to see all the Big Five, including Leopard…but 20 years and many, many Game viewing excursions in several major Game Parks and across three countries…still I haven’t seen one.

So...

I wondered, "would this be the time!?” Would 2023 be the year of seeing a Leopard in the wild?

Well, God certainly had something for me to experience this time…but it wasn’t quite how I thought it would be… 

It was related to not only to seeing a Leopard, but also seeing afresh about the nature of 

• self, 
• sin, 
• salvation.

As we drove back to our chalet at the end of our first evening Game viewing excursion, a car passed us and said if we were heading to a certain area, (which we were), a Leopard had just been spotted. But though it wasn’t far…of course by the time we got there, it was long gone…

...so close but so far!

Oh well. 

I was disappointed…but these things happen.

Then next day we were just driving along in a totally different part of the Park with the Elephant grass high on both sides, and came upon a car that had stopped. So we stopped. But we could not see what they were looking at. Eventually the car turned around and passed us …with the news….just moments before we arrived they had followed a Leopard walking along the road, but it had gone into the grass and they lost sight of it.

…so close but so far!

Oh well.

I was disappointed…but these things happen.

Just a minute or so later, another little white car came along beside us and as they passed they asked us why vehicles had been stopped…we explained that Leopard had been spotted but had gone into the grass, and now couldn’t be seen.

They slowly moved on…and we followed…and then they slowed right down and paused... and as we came alongside them about to ask what they were seeing…they silently and excitedly pointed into the grass right near us ….saying they had just seen the Leopard!

They started to slowly move along…maybe to try to follow to see where he went into the grass…but they lost sight of him….and we didn’t see him either!

…so close but so far!

Oh well.

I was disappointed…but these things happen!

SUDDENLY

Something did start appearing…not in the grass, but in my own heart! I was sad…and …needed the first of my Leopard Lessons!

Lesson #1

SELF

Just that morning I had decided to start reading through a book I had purchased a few years back amidst my honour-shame research…a book called ‘Favor’ by Greg Gilbert (which I recommend by the way).

He had a little section in that book about being content enough with the path God has for us, in whatever form that might be, to be able to rejoice with others who are blessed with what you hope for but don’t have!….He used the illustration of two couples he knew who had struggled with infertility and become firm friends…and then one couple announced at church one Sunday that they were finally expecting a baby…and the husband of the other couple volunteered to pray and give thanks on behalf of the church family, for the other couple. As I read that, I thought…yes…been there…know that feeling…and my heart thanked the Lord for how He has allowed us to also live that reality of coming to terms with the joy others have in things we have longed for, but which God has had reasons to not give us on our path. 

There was a fleeting thought of ’nailed that one’ of the issue of rejoicing with those who rejoice in such contexts.

But suddenly out in the African bush the next day, it was like the Lord said: "no you haven’t nailed it, on your own without Me you never will, and you’ll have a test that will reveal that again to you."

….and that test came on that road, as I realised that welling up was a seed that threatened to sprout forth into full blown envy, jealousy, and resentment.  I realised I was beginning to feel un-satisfied and dis-content that my hopes and expectations weren’t being met. I realised I wasn’t actually rejoicing at that point and didn’t feel much rejoicing for others either.

That Leopard was ’sin crouching at my door’ and it wanted my whole heart for wickedness and not righteousness!

I was suddenly reminded yet again that our hearts, my heart, is deceitful and desperately wicked and wretched, and desperately needs rescuing. 

Without Christ we can do ‘nothing’. While we live on this earth, the old nature, the flesh, continues to simmer away below and is ready to spew out as soon as we relax our dependancy on Christ. Once again I needed to be reminded to not set my ‘rejoicing’ thermostat by my own expectations, to not turn a leopard into an idol that could derail my peace, and steal my joy, and deflect the honour and glory that should have been going to God from my heart for the joy that others were having in His creation.

Then came Lesson #2

SIN

I was so close to seeing that Leopard. 

It was literally only meters from me for several minutes. In front, along side, and behind.

As we drove along I looked out my window and was even able to see his fresh ‘big pussy-cat paw prints’ in the sand!

I could have got out of the car and even ‘walked where he walked’….

I had now, not only heard about a Leopard, but met several people who had seen the Leopard and experienced something that will be with them for the rest of their lives. They can’t ‘un-experience’ it. It was profound. I could see the excitement, awe and amazement on all their faces.

I interacted with them and heard their stories. 

It was all ssooooooo close!

I so, so nearly saw that Leopard for myself!

But nearly is not enough!

Nearly seeing a Leopard is not the same as actually seeing a Leopard!

I still can’t say with any certainty or confidence, ‘I’ve seen a Leopard’.

I can never be a member of a club of those who have seen a Leopard.

Being in the zone of the Leopard doesn’t count as seeing a Leopard.

‘Leopard glory’ can’t be gained by ‘almost’ encountering a Leopard.

This was such a reminder about the reality of sin…

Sin is ‘missing the mark’ - it doesn’t matter how ‘close’ you get to the mark, the target, the requirement…if you miss it, you’ve missed it! My ‘Leopard sighting’ status was no different that morning to what it has been for my lifetime. Whether I was on the other side of the world in Australia, or just a couple of meters away and even seeing a paw-print just pressed into the sand moments earlier, made no difference.

When we later arrived at the Pilanesburg Game Reserve Kiosk and Admin centre, I still could not enter on their viewing records that I had seen a Leopard. 

But then came Lesson #3

SALVATION

This ‘leopard-less’ experience also had something to teach me about salvation, about becoming and being a Christian…

...we have to ’see’ Christ for ourselves. 

• Being near others who have seen him and know him doesn’t allow us membership in his family. 
• Sitting in the zone of other Christians in church doesn’t count. 
• Even trips to Israel to ‘walk where Jesus walked’ isn’t enough to say you have met Him face to face. 
• And there is a great deal of difference between those who ‘hope’ to have maybe gained something by coming ‘close’, and those who have truly met Jesus. 
• And once you have truly ’seen’ Jesus with the eyes of faith in Him, the awe, amazement, joy and excitement will be visible for all to see! The glory of being ‘in Christ’ only comes with a personal encounter with Him.

Then we can sing with John Newton’s ‘Amazing Grace' that ‘I once was blind but now I see’!

…….So I was reminded that :

...there is something greater than having set my eyes on a Leopard,

 …. it’s more important to have my eyes set (and fixed) on a LION !  

And not just on a four footed African mammal (some of those I have seen), nor on the one who acts like a lion - the devil who prowls around wanting to devour and destroy (1 Peter 5:8).

No,….I will forever need to have my eyes set on a more profound Lion... the Lion of the tribe of Judah…the Lion who is the Lamb, the one who saves and delivers and deals with my eternal destiny…I need Jesus. 

It’s so easy to get caught up ‘wanting’ something that is less than what God really has on offer in relationship with Him through His Son.

I was then also reminded again of something I ‘know’ every day in one way or another…but still need to also ‘learn’ every day. 

We grow from one degree of glory to another…we are a work in process in the Potter’s hand. The Lord knew I needed to be reminded that we cannot afford any confidence in our own spiritual growth even for a second. Our hope is not in what temptations we think we have conquered or what issues we think we have worked through or what fruit we think we are now managing to produce (ie joy), but our hope in in Christ alone who is our hope of glory. It is only in His power and grace that we live and walk. Without constant leaning on Him, I am doomed to my own sinful desires focused on self. So I say with Paul in Romans 8…that it is only Jesus who can and does rescue us from this body of death and our own wretchedness. What a wonderful Saviour!

So, no I still did not get to see a Leopard…

Are you sad for me?….Don’t be. 

Rejoice with me instead that many people that day got to see one of God’s amazing creatures. 

And rejoice with me that God had lessons for me to learn and a new level of ‘leaning’ on Jesus to rest in and find joy in.

(and you know these were definitely divinely ‘appointed’ lessons…because we weren’t even going to be on that road. We had chosen a different road and a semi-sleeping elephant who had stopped on the road under a shade of a tree refused to move. 

And rule no 1 in the bush is do not drive near elephants, and never pass right beside them or they might flip your car! So we had to turn around and double back and go a different route…that took us to the Leopard Zone)

It might have been nice to say all this…and then say…'oh and then the next day we saw a Leopard'…but we didn’t. 

However, God’s blessings during those few days were wonderful and we still saw new sights in the African bush.

And some of those I hope to share in some future blogs.

PS....we did however buy a calendar featuring 13 photos of leopard, in support of the Leopard Project of the Reserve...will be a good ongoing reminder of my 3 Leopard Lessons!

Fluttering Reminders of God's Presence

One of the ‘side-effects’ of having a holiday break can be reluctance to launch back into regular life. 

This hit home for me after a recent mini-vacation. Especially as it meant we left a cool-quiet-bush-thatched-cottage environment to come back into a very hot house on one of the hottest days of the season in a noisy, village location. Then to add ‘insult to injury’ as the saying goes, it happened to be also a day without power due to an area fault and no water due to a pump breakdown for the area. Then on top of that the guys who were house-sitting for us, enjoyed the fact we have a back-up water tank but forgot to make sure it got refilled if they had to use any of it…so our normal ready water supply was unavailable due to that, as well as not accessible because the pump couldn’t work with the power out! 

As much as I love ministry and continue to be so excited about all that God is doing…part of me didn’t want to be back. I actually haven’t felt quite like this after any other break away.

But then the goodness of God overwhelmed me!

I was home alone and had to go and adjust something on the tank and as I did, I passed some flowers that had been profusely blooming in our absence. I picked some to enjoy inside. And as I did so, I noticed a type of butterfly I hadn’t seen for a while - a ‘Dotted Border'. So I grabbed the camera and came back to take a few photos.

But as I did, another type of butterfly also arrived - a particularly beautiful one called the Blue Pansy, which reflects light in various ways on its spots depending on the angle of the sun. I had not seen this one at all in the years we have lived at this house, and it was one of the first that I photographed years back when I first started photographing butterflies. 

Then suddenly several other large Citrus Swallowtail butterflies also ‘turned up’ all at once. 

I seemed to be surrounded with fluttering colour and all within good photographing distance, with hardly moving my feet at all!…and it was just like God was saying…’I am here’. Not that I don’t know that as a fact. But to have visual reminders is always wonderful. 

God fills our world with reminders of His presence but also knows our every situation and how to cheer us and encourage us to rest in Him.

Learning from 'SPARE'

Photo - screenshot 

Last week Prince Harry released his long awaited (or feared!) book 'SPARE', supposedly the fastest selling non-fiction book and was the #1 seller on Amazon for the week. And yes, it is being read even here in Africa!

It has gained understanding, sympathy and praise from some quarters - as giving his side of the story, but seems to have made other readers disgusted, appalled, saddened and horrified as being a book that just tears people down, while others are refusing to read it. Although Americans seem more accepting of it than the British, even some Americans who don't understand the British Royal Family, have a problem with someone publicly trashing one's family and publicly exposing family stuff that should stay private behind closed doors...and all for a reward of millions of dollars...without mentioning the risks now brought to military veterans and beyond, over 'kill-count' revelations. Australians seem to be having mixed reactions. One Christian Aussie blogger suggested that to enter into the discussion or read the book is akin to fuelling or participating in 'gossip'.

I must confess I have not yet read the book and I'm not necessarily convinced I want to spend the money or carve out the time to read it…especially just now. But I have watched the interviews with him to hear his own words, and viewed/listened to some of the commentary on the book, not least out of interest in honour-shame dynamics of people and of the British Royal Family and British culture. And I'm not convinced that something that is influencing millions of readers and viewers across the globe should be totally ignored by the church….not to join the gossip, but for knowing the wisest and best ways to bring light and truth into such a situation and discussion.

But, in the light of the honour-shame interest, I thought it might be worth to briefly highlight three elements which stood out to me, which I think are worth reflecting on and learning from to be better equipped to understand our world and be witnesses and gospel-bringers in it.

SPARE

The book title 'Spare' is certainly a powerful one-word title. Prince Harry gave the reasoning behind the book title in an interview saying that it was so he could 'own' a word that had been used against him for a long part of his life. 

This appears to be a desire to 'redeem' a word and reverse a status. What he is doing here seems to be wanting to change the honour status of a label, from something that shamed him to something that is part of achieving value and worth. It re-assigns value…from negative value (shame) to positive value (honour).

It is a desire to reverse the honour-code.

We all have a deep inbuilt desire to reverse our 'shame' status and gain an 'honour' status. But ultimately and sadly, our own efforts to redeem ourselves are not likely to achieve what we hope in the end, or at most they become a pseudo-honour that Satan convinces our own hearts is the answer to our problems and keeps us away from the true and supreme shame-to-honour gift of grace that God's own Son (our perfect redeemer), died to gift us.

Shame

Maybe one of the biggest problematic and dangerous ramifications of his book stems from his comments about numbering those whom he killed while a soldier, and how he had to view those people not as real people at the time. 

In refuting the accusation that his comment was a 'boast', in one of the interviews he gives his reason for numbering those he killed as: 'I made a choice to share it because having spent nearly two decades working with veterans all around the world, I think the most important thing is to be honest and be able to give space to others to be able to share their experiences without any shame. And my whole goal and attempt with sharing that detail is to reduce the number of suicides. 

Despite what many believe is a lack of wisdom in such ill-advised sharing in a book like this, what becomes obvious is, Prince Harry's awareness of the destructive nature of shame (or what I would say is 'mis-placed shame') and his desire to escape it, not only personally but also try to help others to escape it. 

Suicide is at its core most often a desire to either escape, avoid or end humiliation and shame. Suicide is real, and the desires and fears behind it are real. However, once again it is a lie of Satan and our sin-bent hearts that it is the way out of shame. What Harry has got right is that suicide is not the answer. However, to beat suicide, and stay alive on this earth to try to conquer this earth's shame, and yet ignore or refuse God's offered rescue from a far greater eternal shame (which we will wish to escape from but will endure forever with no escape), is a far greater horror than suicide. And when we don't deal with shame, God's way, all other therapies (in missing the mark of God's solution), will have their own other negative impacts one way or another either on the person or those around them. For example, the subtle but powerful allurement of shaming others in order to elevate oneself, as a mis-placed means to overcome shame, is a path that will ultimately bring more pain.

However, having said that, this reminds us yet again that in our bringing of the gospel…the good news…to a sin-sick world, we must bring good news for shame. If we don't wake up to the reality of this, we not only fail to bring the full truth of the good news to hearts, but by our silence on the subject of shame, we end up pushing people to search for false and temporary shame-rescue options, and keep them thinking that Jesus Christ has nothing to offer.

Unconscious Bias

In one interview Harry talked about how he thinks the Royal Family need to deal with 'unconscious bias' that can lead to racism.

Interestingly in another interview, he has now very much tried to disassociate himself from labelling the Royal Family as racist.

But what is interesting here is that he has highlighted a very much overlooked factor in human community life - that of 'unconscious bias'….but his view of it is actually quite limited. 

Scripture gives us the truth that it is a more pervasive problem than we might like to admit.  Human beings all have an 'unconscious bias' - in other words a proclivity toward something that we are most often oblivious to, naive about, and unaware of. And for some, racism might be part of that of course (...and racism doesn't just mean tension between people of differing skin colour, or white toward black….racism can also be white to white or black to black!). 

Interestingly some are commenting in response, that 'unconsious bias' is still something people should be held responsible for, and it can't be detached from deliberate 'racism'.

However, there is a far more serious and sinister 'unconscious bias' than is being raised by Prince Harry ….which is our basic human assumption that we are in the right, that others are to blame for our problems, and that we should make sure to vindicate ourselves and shame others so that we can maintain or 'prove' our worth to ourselves or to others. 

Furthermore, we have a deadly bias toward ignoring God, and looking to creation (self and others) rather than the Creator to find honour and significance.

Fundamentally our unconscious bias is toward sin and away from God. That is the most serious type of unconscious bias that we need remedy for, first and foremost.

Yet, within this is an unconscious bias in us all, to seek honour. Romans 2 tells us this. Where we seek honour determines our life dignity, direction, and destiny. We need to fundamentally recognise the reality of that bias in our own heart and the hearts of others if we are going to understand how our fallen sin-bias functions. It is only then we are likely to grow in our openness and willlingness to have God show us where we seek honour in a mis-placed way which thus blocks (quenches and grieves) God and his work, and therefore blocks his fruit-bearing in our lives and his light-shining through our lives. 

And yes…it is also true, that 'unconscious' or not, God still judges sin. It is wrong in his eyes whether we are aware of it or not. But unlike much of todays world, where the only answer to such partiality (whether conscious or not) is 'cancellation' without offer of forgiveness, God has an offer of forgiveness and grace. God's condemnation of sin, which brings 'cancellation' and 'separation' eternally, only has to be endured if we don't take him up on his already secured promise of his forgiveness gift in Jesus Christ.

So, that was just a few more points to ponder….and maybe some ways you can ask the Lord to help you use them in conversation, to bring the gospel into the conscious awareness and needs of desperately honour-hungry hearts that fill our world.

Go into all the world and bring this good news!