Hear Me Roar

The lion image in this post is something that I drew using a graphic design program several months ago.  There’s quite a story behind it, and God recently began to impress on my heart that I should share it, along with a title of “Hear Me Roar.”

It all began last summer…  

As I lay awake in bed one night, I began praying and allowing God to speak to me in my spirit.  I thought about how the Bible says that the devil is a liar and how Jesus even said that the devil is the father of lies (John 8:44).  Then another Bible verse came to mind, found in 1 Peter 5:8, which says that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  What immediately came to mind next was how “like” is the key word in that verse – the devil prowls around like a lion, but he is not a lion.  Jesus is the lion – the Lion of Judah.  Furthermore, because Jesus lives in me, I have the power of the Lion of Judah inside of me.  

After that, I began seeing lions everywhere.  Perhaps I was a bit more aware of lions than usual – kind of like when you buy a new car and begin to see that car everywhere you go.  But lions aren’t exactly commonplace, and I was seeing them in abundance.  I don’t watch much tv or many movies, but lions appeared in everything I watched during that time.  They also appeared in tv and computer screen savers – at home, work, and elsewhere.  They appeared in YouTube graphics and covers.  They appeared in both print and digital ads.  And not only were lions in the ads, but they were also part of the products themselves – clothing, jewelry, artwork, etc.  I even found lions staring back at me from the tag and buttons on a dress that I had hung on a rack to iron one day.

Lions popped up in many things that I read as well – in books, devotionals, newspaper articles, email articles, blogs, posts others shared on social media, and so on.  Lions were also topics of discussion in Bible studies that I attended and conversations with others.  Lions were mentioned in songs that I heard too.

Every which way I turned, there were lions.  It went on like this for weeks and months.  I kept thinking how God must really be trying to get this message through to me.  And He was.  I had been in a battle for quite some time trying to break free from fear.  It had a strong grip on me.  Every time I thought I was free, it would wrap around me even tighter.  I knew I could only break free in God’s power, so I kept returning to God and asking for His help. 

Through prayer and spending time in God’s Word, He was helping me.  And everywhere I turned, through the image of the lion, God was giving me visual reminders that He was with me, He was fighting for me, and He was working in me.  I had the Lion of Judah on my side and living inside of me, so I need not be afraid.

Then one day, I was compared to a lion.  I was getting my hair highlighted and had foils folded all throughout, which made my blond hair stick out all around my head.  After putting in the last foil, my hair stylist commented that I looked like a lion.  I have been getting my hair highlighted since the 1990s, and not once have I ever been told that I look like a lion.  Plus, my current stylist has been doing my hair for a few years now, and she had never made that comment before.

All I could do was smile and share a wink with God.  And through this, God took things even deeper.  He impressed on me that not only did the Lion of Judah live inside me, but that I was a lion.  As I considered this, I concluded that since I am a child of God, and God is a lion, that makes me a lion.  But there was more to it than that, as I soon found out.

I was doing a Bible study by a particular author at the time, and the author referenced something from another Bible study that she had written.  As it turns out, I had completed that study several years prior and still had the study guide, so I retrieved it to look up what the author had referenced.  When I opened the study guide, a piece of paper fell out.

The paper contained a personality test that I had completed as an activity with that Bible study group.  Each personality type was represented by an animal, one of them being a lion.  I remembered when completing the personality test, how surprised I was that the lion came in as a close second to the animal that came in first, because I didn’t see myself as a lion personality at all.  And as I looked at it the day it fell from the study guide, I felt prompted to complete the personality test again.  I thought perhaps I hadn’t been able to assess myself honestly on the previous occasion because of how I saw (or didn’t see) myself back then.

So, I repeated the test.  And this time, it wasn’t even close.  The lion easily came in first place.  I even had my husband assess me from his perspective (without letting him know the answers I had chosen), and he got the same result for me.

So now I knew what God meant when He impressed upon me that I was a lion.  And for the first time in my life, I was able to see myself for who I really was, who God made me to be.

Around this time, I felt led to update my website.  As I began making the updates, I also began to make a new logo.  The logo ended up being a golden letter “C” – there were several factors that led to me choosing the colors and design that I did, one of which was incorporating some elements pertaining to a lion.  The top of the “C” reminds me of a lion’s tail, and the bottom of the “C” reminds me of a lion’s mane.   

As I was toying with different options when creating the logo, one of the tools I tried was an invert tool.  When I used this tool, it made the “C” graphic look like a face.  It intrigued me, so I saved it as a separate file.  I returned to it later and began working with it – I had never done anything like this before and can’t explain what unfolded other than divine inspiration.  I did a bit of cropping, cutting, and pasting to change the appearance of the face graphic.  I then made snippets from my logo and began layering those piece by piece to form a mane around the face.  Lastly, I added some background color, and voila, a lion image was formed.  It may not be a masterpiece, but it is one of a kind.  And it was composed entirely using elements from my logo.

This:

Became this:

And ultimately this:

I had downloaded the lion image and saved it in my phone photos right before my family encountered an unexpected and traumatic situation in early November.  I can’t tell you how many times I looked at that image over the days and weeks to come.  Over and over, God used it to speak to me.  To remind me not to be fearful but to be strong and courageous.  To reinforce that He had gone before us, was with us, and would see us through.  And to reiterate that I needed to finish what I had started with updating my website.

So, I continued as I was able, including the incorporation of my new logo.  I announced my updated website earlier this year, and as I shared in a recent Facebook post, I have more updates planned.  Slowly but surely, all in God’s timing.

I don’t see lions as frequently now – God has gotten His message through to me and has freed me from the bondage of fear.  But I do see lions every now and then, and I came across the lion graphic recently in my phone photos when I was looking for something else.  As I looked at it, God impressed upon my heart that I needed to tell the story.  Later that same day, having no knowledge of the lion graphic or how God was leading me to share the story, a friend texted me a link to a song.  When I opened the link, it displayed the whole album that the song was a part of, including the album cover.  On the cover was a picture of a lion, and the album was titled, “The Lion’s Eyes.”  I shared a heart smile with God as I received this affirmation.

The next morning, I was getting ready and applying eyeshadow.  As I finished and went to put away the eye shadow box, I paused to admire the box’s design.  The box is covered in an array of beautiful butterflies, and the design nicely complements the assortment of pinks, peaches, and pastels contained in the eye shadow palette.  I turned the box over to see if the eye shadow colors were identified, which is not something I would typically do.  The colors were indeed identified, each with a unique name, most of which would be expected given the design of the box and the eye shadow colors … names such as ‘HEARTS-A-FLUTTER’, ‘U GIVE ME BUTTERFLIES’, ‘SOFT LANDING’, and ‘THINK PINK’.

But one of the names was unexpected and stood out from the rest (and happened to be a color that I had applied that day) – it was called ‘HEAR ME ROAR’.  As soon as I read it, I shared another smile and a wink with God, and I knew this would be the title for the story.

“Hear me roar” is not a phrase that I would have associated with myself in the past, nor can I imagine that most people would have associated with me.  I was a shy child.  I’m typically reserved.  I’m a deep thinker, an introspective type.  Out of my different friend groups, I am usually the quieter one.  I like spending time with family and friends, but I also like (and need) my quiet time. 

And for a good part of my life, I haven’t let my voice be heard.  But that has all changed.  Now I know who God made me to be and what He has called me to.  I know who I am in Christ, and I am standing firm in that. 

So, when the devil comes prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, he is going to see that I’m on the lookout too.  And he is going to see who the real lion is.  He is going to see the Lion of Judah that lives in me.  He is going to see the lion that God made me to be.  And he is going to hear me roar.

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“But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to reveal his Son to me…” Galatians 1:15-16 (NLT)

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith…”  1 Peter 5:8-9 (NIV)

“I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.”  Ephesians 1:19-20 (NLT)

“They triumphed over him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” Revelation 12:11 (NIV)