We were brought up to believe in justice when faced with situations of aggression, theft, abuse, etc. Whenever something like this happens, we become angry with the situation, but that anger is useless if you don’t take action, if you don’t go and defend yourself.

For example:

There are two lions. One lives in the wild and the other lives in the Zoo. The Zoo lion doesn’t need to hunt for food, he doesn’t need to defend himself and he’s never in any danger. There is complete stability in his life. Every day, at the same time, the zookeeper brings him grade-A meat containing all the nutrients he needs for a shiny, healthy coat and strong muscles. On the other hand, the wild lion has to endure rain and the desert heat. He has to hunt in order to eat; he’s always running the risk of encountering dangerous situations where he’ll have to defend himself in order to survive and his coat isn’t well taken care of.

If we look at it logically, the Zoo lion lives in better conditions than the wild lion. But there’s a problem, or maybe, several problems: the Zoo lion doesn’t get to choose what he eats because someone does that for him, he has no freedom because he’s limited by the fences and he’s admired but would be unable to survive if he ever returned to the wild. Now, the wild lion, more than anything else, is free to roam wherever he wants, he eats whatever he wants – today he’ll eat a duck, tomorrow he’ll eat a deer and a boar the following day… Nobody tells him where to go, what to eat or what to do. They are both lions, but one is wild, independent, living each day overcoming challenges in order to survive.

Now, isn’t that what happens to many Christians, who were “wild lions” before they got to know God. They weren’t scared of anything, they were daring and many were even audacious enough to act outside the law. However today, that they’re free and could work towards accomplishing their goals and be audacious in getting justice for their life, they act like tame Zoo lions, sitting around waiting for God (the zookeeper) to bring them everything they need. They become limited, stuck behind religious “fences”. They’re still lions; they still have a lion-like nature, the still have a lion’s sense, but they’ve become Zoo lions.

I won’t even begin speaking about the circus lion or the cuddly teddy-bear lion.

Pr. Walber Barbosa