Bloganuary Day 11

There’s a difference between being bold and being offensive. In my Krazy Karismatic days in the late 80s, I was church-hopping. We were a pretty reticent crowd and were constantly encouraged by our preachers to be as “bold as a lion”. After one such meeting I met with a small group where a Krazy Karismatic said she used to be shy, timid and reticent, but now “I AM BOLD AS A LION”! she screamed into my ear. Today, I have ringing in my ears… I wonder if she was one of the reasons.

Being bold means being willing to stand up for your beliefs when the situation calls for it — even if it risks losing a lot of “Likes”. When the situation doesn’t call for it, it’s downright offensive.

As a teen, I decided to try basketball; to my chagrin, the ball kept slipping from my hands… Sigh. Anyway, there were two girl leaders there, one whom the boys called the Sherman Tank because she was taller, bigger and fitter than some of them. After a game, they cornered me in the basketball court and forced me to hear about Jesus. No one likes to be force-fed. When I told them I wasn’t interested, one of them — I think it was the Sherman Tank — told me I was going to Hell. As I walked away from them feeling harassed, intimidated and offended, my one thought was, “I don’t think God is like that.”

And I was right. He’s a lot bigger than that, and the world that He showed me after my encounter with Him was way beyond anything I had ever imagined. But I digress…

After a few months of church-hopping, I returned to my conservative Methodist church. I joined the Adult Fellowship, a group of about 50 people. We had a couple of good worship leaders and as they sang and played, I felt really excited and was drawn to sing and lead. Now I had not sung since my teens, when I was Alto in the Combined Schools Choir. Nevertheless, the situation called for me to be “bold as a lion” although in truth I was shy as a mouse. So I valiantly volunteered to lead worship, while the two leaders looked at me dubiously and tried to train me.

After some practice, I took the mike to lead the people… and found I could hardly sing. Something was hindering my voice. But even as I struggled in my singing, the presence of God slowly filled the room… one by one, people were being overcome by His power and my leader, seeing what was happening, invited everyone to the front for prayer.

It took me some time to overcome my singing issue — with training, practice and prayer, I managed to sing adequately.

That experience however, taught me that being “bold as a lion” pays off. Just do your best with what you have, and He will do the rest.