The Lion and the Stream

I find it funny that I helped create this blog and have yet to actually "blog." It's been almost 6 months, and nothing. I wrote the preface, and then updated it...but no posts. But today, is the day.

So I have this book...a collection of C.S. Lewis excerpts...and I've had it for a good while now. From time to time I crack it open and read a passage or two.
Each one is rich.
Mad rich.
However, my favorite has yet to remain the very first excerpt in the book. It's called "The Lion and The Stream." It's very symbolic. It's almost like your reading an exposition of his thoughts in visual form.
Please prepare to understand this. I'll let you read before I give a commentary. I like to think most things should hit you first, and heal you after.
Pray for light.
Here we go...

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"Are you not thirsty?" said the Lion.
"I'm DYING of thirst," said Jill.
"Then drink," said the Lion.
"May I- could I- would you mind going away while I do?," said Jill.
The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at it's motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.
The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.
"Will you promise not to--do anything to me, if I do come?," said Jill.
"I make no promise," said the Lion.
Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.
"DO you eat girls?," she said.
I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms," said the Lion. It didn't say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.
"I daren't come and drink," said Jill.
"Then you will die of thirst," said the Lion.
"Oh dear!," said Jill, coming another step nearer. "I suppose I must go and look for another stream then."
"There is no other stream," said the Lion.

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It's natural for us to want the resurrection without the grave...the gain without the pain...to drink from the stream without looking in the Face of the Lion.

I wish all the time that I could be in shape without going through the ridiculous pain of getting there. But that's just not how it works. So I swallow sadness.
Moving on...

Christ stumbled up a hill carrying a cross - a heavy cross - to the place where he would be stripped naked and hung for the world to see by nails in his hands and feet. Prior to that, he was beat in the town square until he was physically not human.
He took the fall, for His future glory. He chose humiliation over glory, so that he would be glorified in the end, and so that men of every nation and ethnicity could come drink from the Spring of Life.

He calls us to do the same. To lay down our lives...to bow our heads and drink before the Lion...submitting to death, that we might have life. He calls us to give in and give up...to sell out and cash in, because He is the great reward. He beckons us to walk the sand and snow, the desert and the storm, to reach the crystal tides of life.

In the book of Joshua, we see that the armies of the Israelites were commanded by the Lord at one time to lap water from the streams like a dog, drinking for life, on hands and knees and all. They were not supposed to simply kneel on one knee, while watching the banks for danger. It was all in, desperate for strength and life.

The truth with we Christians: we're thirsty. We're weak, and desperate for strength, desperate for water. Sadly, too often not desperate enough. In our fallen and selfish ways, we often can't stand the thought of our kingdom being destroyed, so would rather thirst to death. If we can't drink from the One stream, however, we will search for another. We search for a new stream, and never find one. Every other one is a just a broken cistern, as the Lord says in Isaiah - like a trench we dig that becomes stagnant and dry.
We want the joy of knowing Christ without the pain of the Holy Spirit's renovation in our hearts and lives, because we know these temples are in need of a thorough gutting...ripping out the walls and the pillars that hold us so strong.
These temples are home to pagan gods and idols. Their rotten and dusty, and the Holy Spirit doesn't like it. He means business, building from the ground up.

But we work on preserving our kingdoms and the cities of our hearts without end. These things we've built took so much work...so much time.
The desires and sins we've worked toward are so precious to us so often.
In the narrative, it's Jill's LIFE she's fighting to keep. She asks the Lion so sincerely to look away while she drinks from the stream.
But if only she were to lay down, bow her head, and drink, she would understand just how thirsty she was. She would begin to sip, and then sip some more, and finally find that her face is completely plunged into the stream because the water is so good. She wouldn't want to look up. She wouldn't even think about it. She would just drink. And drink. And drink. And the Lion would devour her, and she wouldn't even care...because she would find that the water is the water of Life.

So will we lay it down? Will we give it all, letting everything we've ever known become His life, as we trade ours for His? We will carry our cross? Will we lay down our earthly crowns and desires that he would be enthroned on our worship? Will we let the tower fall, and replace the foundation with Christ?

Give it all to the One who is Life. He has given His so that you could know him...so that you could drink and be satisfied beyond all measure. His love is perfect.

Drink all you want! He's got it covered!

SSD