But realistically, it's more than just a little request we lay before God, isn't it? It's more than something we pray before dinner. Or before we fly on an airplane.
It's all we want.
Cmon, you've heard it before. I've heard it before. Actually, I'm pretty sure I've said it before. "I just want to get married, raise a happy family, live in the suburbs, have a nice house with a white picket fence, and die of old age. Oh, and love God." Yes please, thank you very much.
Safety and security. How dearly we value these two things without even realizing it. How deeply we pursue them. How focused our lives become on these two little words.
And furthermore, in our relentless pursuit of them, we've somehow managed to make them "christian". We've manipulated our faith to allow us comfortable lives, with minimal risk. We've made it okay to shut ourselves off from the rest of the world and are content to be in our safe "bubble". In fact, we've twisted it so much that it's almost looked down upon if you don't fit the mold of a "safe, secure, conservative, clean, happy, sheltered, never-struggling Christian".
We, okay maybe I should speak for myself here..., but I live as if it's my right to be safe and secure. As if I'm entitled to it--expecting God to give me safety and security and getting angry with Him when He sometimes doesn't.
Francis Chan says it better, and funnier, than I. Take a look.
So maybe Mr. Chan takes it to the extreme--but it's all true. We favor safety and security far more than sacrifice and surrender.
And I keep finding out that this is not biblical. (Dang it. I hate it when that happens.) For some reason, growing up, I thought that God delighted in my plans of valuing security. Like He wanted me to live in my happy, safe bubble. But I'm slowly learning that following Jesus has nothing to do with safety and security. In fact, it's just the opposite.
I mean, what part of Jesus sending out the disciples without food, clothes or supplies is safe and secure? What part of God sending Abraham to an unknown land while he was old and gray was safe and secure? What part of God's plan for salvation, sending His own Son to be hung on a cross, is safe and secure? Someone please show me in the Bible where God values safety and security as much as I currently do. Someone, anyone...anywhere, please? I'm currently reading through the Bible and I haven't found an instance yet. And something tells me that I don't think I will.
But I'm learning something else too. While God doesn't want, guarantee or promote "safety and security" in this world, He does offer it to us through a relationship with Himself.
This is good news.
And it just requires a slight shift in thinking.
While the world is shaky and constantly unknown, I know I am safe in God. If I risk for God, I have faith that it won't be in vain. If I lose Steven tomorrow, I am secure, knowing that I will see him again and that he is in a far better place. For God is in control and He is always good. And if He is both of those things, how can I not be safe and secure? It's just not the safe and secure that most think of. One is eternal, the other is temporary and fleeting. One is satisfying, the other leaves us only wanting more. One brings peace and rest, the other just complacency and loneliness.
Let's shift our thinking. Let's risk and do unthinkable things for God today because our real safety and security doesn't lie in this world anyway--it is in the hands of our good and sovereign King.
I'll close with this.
In C. S. Lewis’ allegorical classic, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the Beavers are describing the great lion, Aslan, to the children.
Mr. Beaver says,"You’ll understand when you see him."
“But shall we see him?” asked Susan.
“Why, Daughter of Eve, that’s what I brought you here for. I’m to lead you where you shall meet him,” said Mr. Beaver.
“Is – is he a man?” asked Lucy.
“Aslan a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”
“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King I tell you.”
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