In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars

The point here is a fairly simple one: the things you fear may very well be opportunities that God has put in your path, and you should probably act on those opportunities. The exploration of the point is pretty tedious, though. Batterson seems enchanted with the brief mention of Benaiah (in what is essentially a footnote to the story of David in 1 and 2 Samuel), and he devotes numerous pages to imaginative speculation of what the man's encounter with a lion must have been like (there is also speculation as to what being a bodyguard was like, how he was promoted to a commander, what that was like, what his encounters with a tall Egyptian and with two Moabites was like, etc.). There's nothing wrong with drawing reasonable conclusions, but I'm uncomfortable with theology spiraling out from this reading between the one line of Scripture. It's not that the idea is necessarily bad, it's just that I don't think Batterson has chosen the right Scripture to ground the book. Batterson also overuses a wide-eyed breathless "lion chasers" term that made me roll my eyes every single time I read it (if you've read Erwin McManus' The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within, you've had a good taste of what this is like). I admit, my perspective is biased because I don't trust Brian McLaren, and he has clearly been a significant influence on this work (a glowing note of thanks to him in Batterson's acknowledgments page, his endorsement on both the back cover and one of the first inner pages, etc.). I am also not completely comfortable with the way that business leadership and pop psychology books seem to have an influence on this book that equals the Bible's. Still, there is a perfectly adequate amount and variety of Biblical examples when Batterson can pry himself out of the jaws of his beloved lion story, and I can't say that he says anything that directly contradicts the Bible. The summary and discussion question at the end of each chapter are helpful.

Ultimately, I do not recommend this book. The point is OK, but I think it is better as the subject of a five-minute conversation instead of a full book. Your life will not get worse after reading this, it's just that I think you'll be wasting your time on it.Get more detail about In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars.