I saw this documentary on Nat. Geo. A couple of years back and it hasn't stopped speaking to me …
There was this Lion who was the king of his own pride. He called the shots and the lionesses brought food from hunting and, in short, he was the badass of his domain until one day... Two young lions, brothers, desperate for a pride of their own, came prancing along ...they smelled of trouble... The lionesses with Cubs panicked and hid away their Cubs for the risk of infanticide.…
The battle didn't last long before his submission as he was out-fanged from the outset. Ousted and banished, with his head hanging down, this is Lion set out to make something of anything that remained of his life. He walked for miles...no prey in sight. He was losing strength and that was particularly frightening for him as he had to kill all by himself or face a certain death. After about a week or so, he chanced upon a sleeping Hyena. He quickly tore it to bits. It was but a mere snack to keep him alive for a day or two…
This great Lion of my story is now bone weary having gone on without food for weeks. Voila! Water! And oh his goodness, look what he had found by the river! A dying Hippo! The hippo was all he needed to bounce back and become every ounce of what he had once been. He drew close. The Hippo bull was so set on dying that he didn't even spare the Lion a second glance, as if to say, 'do it quickly, it's your lucky day old sport!'
The Lion closed in on it's jugular and pulled, arced and pulled yet again with a bite too weak to even puncture the hide of the fallen beast... more frantic efforts yielded no results. His bite force was too week. He had his big break but he was already too broken to break through...the great Lion lay beside the 2-ton beast and died.
May we not get to the red Sea, parted before us and and be tired to cross! May you not stop digging two feet from gold... Exhaustion has made many get to the finish line and refuse to cross...there are many men in the birthing room about to give birth to their blessing who are to exhausted from the many moons of pregnancy to push... Don't die on us now... That victory is not just yours but also for all those that will come after. That brainchild is for an entire civilization... Don't abort it ! Don't you die on us now?