The lion and the lamb

One day a lion met a tiger in the jungle. He grabbed the tiger’s tail and demanded, “Who is the king of the jungle?” The tiger answered meekly, “You are, O mighty lion.” Next the lion grabbed a monkey, asking, “Who do you say is the king of the jungle?” The monkey humbly replied, “You, O mighty lion.” Then the lion met an elephant and asked, “Who is the king of the jungle?” The elephant grabbed him with his trunk, whirled him around and threw him up against a tree, leaving him bleeding and broken. The lion got up slowly and, licking his wounds, said to the elephant, “Just because you don’t know the answer is no reason for you to get so rough.” The lesson in this story is this: the greater your authority, the more gracious your attitude toward others should be. In Scripture Jesus is referred to as a lion and a lamb; He’s the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and He’s the Lamb of God. And in this He shows us the essence of true strength and leadership. When it comes to standing for the truth, you should roar like a lion, and when it comes to dealing with people, you should be as gentle as a lamb. Paul spells it out clearly in this Scripture: “With all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.” Again he wrote, “Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do” (Colossians 3:13 NKJV).