Face Your Pit, Find Your Purpose: The Art of Choosing Hard Things

Snow blinds the field. A lion roars from the pit. Most of us would walk away—Benaiah jumps in. We revisit a powerful archive conversation that refuses to romanticize courage and instead shows how purpose is forged when we choose the hard thing over the easy out. Starting with 2 Samuel 23:20, we paint the snowy scene, the terrible odds, and the stunning choice that turned a footnote into a masterclass on grit. From there, we connect the dots to our own lives: the habits we dodge, the callings we delay, and the comfort we guard like a treasure.

We talk frankly about prayer and purpose. Do we only ask for mountains to move, or do we ask for stronger legs to climb? We reflect on Jesus’ plea about the cup and his surrender to the Father’s will, not to make suffering glamorous, but to reframe courage as obedience in motion. Then we widen the lens: friends stepping into politics despite public scrutiny, professionals leaving high salaries for humanitarian missions, leaders choosing service where applause is scarce. These modern lion chasers aren’t reckless; they’re resolved. They accept the cost because the cause is larger than comfort.

David’s shepherd years round out the picture. He didn’t just protect sheep; he eliminated threats. That’s a blueprint for stewardship today: feed what’s entrusted to you and fight what diminishes it—fear, apathy, addiction, cynicism. Romans 8 echoes through the conversation: being “more than conquerors” assumes real battles and real victories. We close with practical prompts to name your lion, step toward it with preparation and prayer, and act before comfort talks you out of it. If you’ve been waiting for a sign to choose courage, this is it. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs a push, and leave a review telling us the one hard thing you’ll tackle this week.

Our team will choose random (but timely) episodes from our previous three seasons (which are our most popular ever!) to share with our listeners during the slower parts of a long podcast season. We think you will enjoy them! Thanks for listening!

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Transcript

Subscribes, Thanks, And Setup

Benaiah’s Snowy Lion Story

Choosing Hard Over Easy

From Prayer To Purpose

Lion Chasers In Real Life

David, Conquest, And Calling

Charge To Conquer And Close

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Hey friends and fam, it's Mr. You. Now, our team wanna try something fresh and something different, especially during our slower months of the season. So, starting this season, we're gonna release random but timely episodes from our first few seasons, which I gotta tell you are the most popular seasons of our entire podcast brand history. I think when you hear them, you'll know why they're so popular. It's gonna be great for new listeners and great also for longtime listeners who've been following us for a while. So stay tuned. Thank you for watching us and for listening. Hope you enjoy this new experience. We're going into the archives. Here's a blast in the past right now. I think you'll enjoy. Have fun. Download and subscribe to our show wherever you enjoy your podcast listening. Thank you for liking, sharing, and subscribing to our podcast and YouTube channel. Thank you again for supporting our show. Hope you've been inspired so far. Uh, you know, recently I've been having some time to kind of ponder this, and I was actually reading an incredible book that kind of reminded me of some of this. But there's a man in the Bible, and the Bible does have a lot of passages that may seem obscure, they may not be the subject of a Sunday school lesson, but they have power packed in them, even in a little short uh text. But in the book of 2 Samuel, the 23rd chapter, verse 20, most notably, it talks about a man named Beniah. Uh, he was considered the son of a valiant man and he'd done many great acts. He was definitely a warrior. Uh, but the most emphatic part of that passage is that he slew a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow, the Bible says. Now you gotta think about the entire situation. He did, he slew a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow. Just try to catch some of the visuals. Obviously, it's snowing. If you live in the south, you may not even know what I'm talking about unless you saw a picture on TV or on the weather channel. But I come from New York City, so I know what it means to be in a snowstorm. I know what it means to not be able to see your hand in front of your face. I know what it means to not be able to walk without doing so very, very slowly because of the height of the snow. And you're getting stuck in it while you're walking because it's cold and it's still snowing and it's starting to get icy. So you got a potential of getting stuck or slipping. So there's a lot of that, plus the visual aspect where it's hard to see your hand in front of your face, especially when it's a really bad storm, which I've lived through several of those. So I'm imagining all that in my mind right now. Bernai is in the midst of us of a lot of snow, and mobility is obviously an issue, vision is obviously an issue, but then to top things off, for whatever the reason was, he encountered a lion. Now, we don't call the lion the king of the jungle for nothing, they're predators, and they're very good at what they do, and they will attack, and usually they'll be victorious. This particular lion, I don't know how it happened, but somehow or another the lion fell into or jumped into a pit. That should be enough if the lion and and and and Benaya or you are face to face. You rather the lion be in the pit than 500 pounds of man beast being on top of you, right? So that makes sense. He's in the pit, he's not on you. Problem solved, right? Well, in this case, Benaya, for whatever the reason was, he was faced with a hard situation, he chose the hard response. He chose hard instead of easy. He jumped into the pit with the lion. Now, this is great for cinema. This is an incredible movie scene right here. It's coming down, I mean, snow is coming down, you can hardly see your hand in front of your face, and the lion's in the pit, and you jump into the pit after the lion. With nothing but a blade in your hand. And all you hear is a man screaming and a lion roaring. I mean, most people are gonna already make the assumption, guess what? We know what it is. The lion just had lunch. Show's over, good night. But that's not what happened here. Benay jumped into the midst of the pit and came out with his life. He had scratches and bruises, and he was probably bleeding. But he came out with his life. The lion, however, did not. And like I said, this is stuff that movies are made of. But it speaks so much to something I think we miss. The desire to face the impossible. Because technically, if there was about odds being laid, there's no way Benaya makes it. He loses in the weight category, in the height category, in the reach category. If it was a boxing match, the tail of the Tate wouldn't look good for Banaya. The lion had every advantage and probably had way more kills than Benaya did on top of that, to add to all the other stats that he came up with short in. But Benaya has a desire to face the impossible. So many times we ask God to take away the hard things from us. And that's still a common prayer today. We're still asking God to move the mountain out of our way. We're still asking God to remove the obstacle so we can walk safely to our destination. Rather than asking God to make us strong in the midst of the situation. That's a very uncommon prayer. I know it's being prayed, but it's a very, very uncommon prayer. I mean, I can't go on social media now, even today, without seeing a quote about power, doing the impossible, being a warrior or a mountain climber, overcoming our enemies, conquering all fears and everything else that's inspirational like that. But when did that actually happen? I'm just asking for a friend here. When did that actually happen? Can we do that legitimately and still maintain our comfort? Can we have both? It's common to ask God to take away the cup. That's a common prayer. In the moment of Jesus' greatest weakness on Calvary's cross, he even asked, if it be possible, Lord, let this cup pass for me. In other words, can we go past this? Is there another route? That was the moment of his greatest weakness, but he followed that up by saying, But your will be done and not mine's. He said, if the cup can be possible to be taken away from me, by all means go right ahead. This is very hard to bear. At the end of that, he said, But your will be done. The son's reverence and obedience to his father kicked in and he said, But your will be done, not mine's. In other words, this is a hard thing. The hardest thing, perhaps. I can walk through it as long as I'm walking through it with you. Benay didn't have to chase the lion. If the lion's in the pit, for me that's a win, right? That means you know what? I can go home to my family, no harm, no foul. Live to tell another day. But Benay didn't have to chase the lion, but he he could have avoided it. I mean, I got some friends that probably would have made a different decision as well. Most folk I know probably would have done that. No one would have falted Benaiah or you. You didn't have to go and take them into your home. You didn't have to donate that amount of money. You didn't have to spend that much time. A lot of folks take the easy route or do the minimals or the minimum. Avoiding bad spots is common. For those that enjoy playing at average levels, avoiding bad spots is common. If you like playing at average levels, it's not hard to understand. It's pretty common. But if you don't want to live a quote unquote average life, if you want to exceed expectations and empty out all the purpose that's inside of you that was God given, and you want to go beyond the quote-unquote normal around you, because if you look around you, you see a whole lot of normal and a whole lot of average. Do you like it? Does it make you feel good about yourself, or do you feel as though you may be playing or dumbing down to your environment? I got some friends that are being led to go into political political office. Do you think they're not afraid? That dog eat dog world with all that goes on, all the scrutiny? I mean, you see it in TV and arts and cinema, but you see it in real life as well. Your whole life gets drug. Your family, everything is on under scrutiny. You think they're not afraid to go into the political world, that dog-eat dog kind of mentality and arena? I know folks that left seven-figure jobs to go on humanitarian missions where they don't get paid. I know a lot of lion chasers, but most of the people I know would simply be content with just getting away from the lion alive and well, and not jumping into the pit to address aggressively whatever the situation is in their life. And that's the part that I think about the most with this. Baniah was a considered a valiant man. He slew men that were at the height of their craft when it comes to being a warrior. He slew a lion that had him outweighed, outreached. In every area, in every category, he was the underwhelming favorite. He was had less than favorable odds to survive that encounter. What's popping up in your life that is less than favorable, but you haven't addressed it yet? What's popped up in your life that represents a lion? Something that's bigger than you, that's greater than you, that seems stronger than you, but you refuse to face it. You refuse to jump into the pit and aggressively tackle it. I think about David. I mean, sheep herder by trade. I don't believe that it was part of his job description to kill the lion and the bear, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't in the job description at all. Your job was to go and tend to the sheep and make sure they eat and get fed, and as you watch them, watch watch them for what? I think it's kind of part of the job description that they could be a predator, a lion, a wolf, or a bear. But the Bible said that David killed the lion and the bear in protection of the sheep. So he protected them and fed them, but he also killed their enemies. You could have just scared them off and said, shoo, shoo, shoo, fly, shoo, go away. Leave my sheep alone. But David attacked his enemies. He was aggressive and he was active, not passive. If you have purpose inside of you, I believe that's part of what you do sign up for. How do I know that? How can I prove it? I'll just use one passage of scripture. Romans 8, 36 to 37. As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. We are more than conquerors because there's something in life to conquer. It's time for us to jump into the pit and fight that enemy aggressively. Not run and hide and be happy to get away so we can get back to our couches. Jump into the pit, fight and conquer the enemy, walk in purpose and win. Whoever you are today and however you're hearing our show, thank you again for making the day. Call me Mr. You a part of our morning, part of your morning, excuse me, your day and your week. We your weekly mirror check before you change the world. Thank you again for joining us. We appreciate you guys so much. Enjoy the music. Coach out.