Mark Batterson published Chase the Lion in 2016 as the sequel to his earlier In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.
Both books are built on one obscure verse near the back of 2 Samuel:
“There was also Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel. He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two champions of Moab. Another time, on a snowy day, he chased a lion down into a pit and killed it.”
Batterson calls this his personal favorite, out of all 31,102 verses in the Bible.2 The whole book is built on it.
The subtitle is the whole argument in nine words:
If your dream doesn’t scare you, it’s too small.
What It Actually Does
Batterson takes a throwaway verse and refuses to let it stay throwaway.
Benaiah was one of King David’s mighty men. The passage in 2 Samuel 23 is a list of warrior accomplishments. He killed two of Moab’s champions. He took down a massive Egyptian using only the Egyptian’s own spear. And on a snowy day, he saw a lion, climbed down into a pit after it, and killed it.
Batterson reads that and asks: what kind of person chases the lion? Most people, if a lion crosses their path on a normal day, run the other way. Benaiah ran toward it. In a pit. In the snow. On purpose.
That is the book. Stop running. Run to the roar.
Each chapter builds a leadership principle around a different one of David’s mighty men from the same chapter in 2 Samuel. The writing is plain, biographically dense, and motivational without being saccharine. Tim Tebow, Louie Giglio, and a long line of other Christian leaders endorsed it.
Why It’s on the List
The post on false humility named a particular cost. People stuck in it never set a goal that scares them. They aim low and call it modesty. The gift sits in the corner, unwrapped.
Chase the Lion is the antidote. It is permission to write down the dream so big it requires God to pull it off.
Batterson’s framing is direct. A dream that doesn’t scare you isn’t worth chasing. A dream you can pull off in your own strength wasn’t really from God. The whole point is the kind of goal that humbles you back into prayer.
That is exactly the goal-setting move the parent post argued for.
One Honest Note
Batterson’s earlier book The Circle Maker has critics who push back on his prayer theology, calling parts of it adjacent to name-it-claim-it teaching. That conversation exists. It is worth knowing about.
Chase the Lion sits in a different lane. It is not a prayer-mechanics book. It is a vision-and-courage book, anchored in a real Bible character with a real story.
Read it knowing what it is. A permission slip, not a doctrinal text.
Then write down the goal you’ve been embarrassed to put on paper.
Then chase it.