Lion Living Lifts Others
Not too long ago, I read about a man who collects newspaper clippings of walk-off home run photos from Major League Baseball. He keeps them in a scrapbook because he believes a walk-off homer is the perfect picture of the celebration that takes place in heaven when we finally make it home. He imagines himself, and each of us, rounding third base, to the roar of the crowd — hands raised, arms wide, a whole stadium of onlookers ready to welcome us.
After reading that, I searched for some of these photos myself. Being a lifelong Cubs fan, I landed on one that would’ve made my grandpa proud. My Papa was a die-hard Cubs fan. The background soundtrack of my childhood was day games at Wrigley Field called by Harry Caray. Papa had worked for a while in Chicago and, as a young man, he would sneak away from work to attend Cubs games. Years later, after he moved to El Paso, Texas, he bought one of the first satellite dishes in town — an absolute monster, like the Hubble telescope precariously perched on his roof! Every time he changed the channel, it felt like the earth shook. But he didn’t care. He bolted it onto the roof himself it so he could watch every single televised Cubs game on WGN.
The photo I found was from August 12, 2018. On that day, David Bote hit a walk-off grand slam for the Cubs. It was a pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the ninth with the Cubs down 3–0. Two outs. Two strikes. Everything was stacked against him. The odds were nearly impossible. But Bote stepped back into the batter’s box. That takes humility. It takes guts. And when he swung, the ball exploded off his bat., over the center field wall!
What makes the moment powerful isn’t just the home run or the team win in dynamic fashion. It’s the scene at home plate. The photo shows his teammates jumping, shouting, and celebrating as he rounds third and heads home. Behind them you can see the whole crowd on their feet. Every fan in the frame is yelling, hooting, hollering, standing, and celebrating. When one player stepped up to the plate, faced some long odds, and overcame, it lifted everyone.
That’s what rising does. It changes the atmosphere. It turns the tide. When you rise from failure, when you become more than what the world said you’d be, when you say yes to Jesus and keep stepping forward in faith even when it’s scary or hard; even if it’s a small victory no one else sees, all of heaven is on its feet shouting: “Yes! You chose faith over fear. You’re rising!”
Many of our Young Lions in Zambia had brutally difficult beginnings. They have had to do lots of work and show lots of faith to continue to overcome and live rising, running, and roaring lives. When we started our church at the dusty soccer field across from the Lion House, I remember a day when one of the Lions who was helping me with the kids’ lesson, disappeared. Initially, I was frustrated because we were a team and he was part of my lesson…where could he have gone?
But then he rounded the corner, and from across the street, I saw him on his way back, and he was carrying one of the neighbor kids. He had looked around and noticed that Lameck was nowhere to be seen. This young neighbor boy doesn’t have the use of his legs and most often, when his hand-cranked wheelchair is functioning that’s how he gets around. But on this day, it was broken. When Martin came back carrying him, it was an insightful moment of the shift that was happening inside him and in so many of our Young Lions. Martin was rising! And he wasn’t just rising for himself. His rising was lifting others. His running with Jesus was making him courageous, compassionate, and was strengthening his character!
Rising lifts everyone around you. It ignites courage in others. It signals victory. It sets the grandstands ablaze with energy, excitement, and joy! Rising also sets you up to run freely toward a future brimming with hope!
Lion living really does lift others.