The Lion Behind the Mafaan

What Lion? And what is "Mafaan"?

Remember when I said a lot of the students at UBC were from Asian backgrounds? Well, I've picked up a bit of Mandarin. My vocabulary is limited to "Tien xi hen hao" (It's nice out today) "Ni hao ma?" (How are you?) and "Mafaan", which refers to something troublesome or annoying. For example, "The buses were late today, it was so mafaan." *

Ok...so, what about the Lion?

In the Horse and his boy, Shasta is a young boy alone in the wilderness who is on a mission but has been troubled by lions threatening his journey. As he's riding one evening in the dark, he feels a presence alongside him in the mist who reveals that he, Aslan, was the ONLY lion, all along.

"I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you."

Like Shasta, this year at UBC has had it's share of "jackals", or as I called it, "mafaan". There were times when the weights of ministry grew too heavy to carry alone. There have been days when the concerns of life, being a grown up and getting married have tired me out. And that is the beauty of this past school year at UBC; God has taught me that He is the Lion behind each problem...that every conflict, every concern is an opportunity to trust Him and to surrender the weights to Him. Rather than shouldering them alone, we're called to lay our cares upon Him.

This morning, I was reading Psalm 94 and was struck by its sincerity and relevancy in my journey alongside God, "When i thought, 'My foot slips', your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul" (verses 18-19).



*Please pardon my poor spelling in mandarin and poor translations!