Safety First?
We all have friends like this: the ones who won’t touch the locker room door handle with their bare hands or sip from our straws. "But I don't have a cold!" you protest, even as your clean-freak friend jumps up to get a drink of her own. Her backpack is full of hand sanitizers and
wipes and antiseptic spray. "Don't touch that," she warns about the daddy longlegs making its way across the biology lab windowsill. You roll your eyes. Is anything safe?
Enter Susan Pevensie. She's usually the first among her siblings to express any kind of fear or hesitation in this Narnia adventure, and it's more than just her need to act according to practical common sense. This caution is born out of her desire to avoid getting hurt. "Is he quite safe?" she asks, upon learning that Aslan is a lion.
For Susan-as with many of us, if we're really honest- "Safety first" is the motto.
Our human nature is prone to such fear and distrust. We start out feeling secure in the arms of our parents or guardians, and then one day (perhaps the first day of kindergarten?) we look out at the world and realize things are not as safe as we supposed. There are bullies on the playground. Our bikes crash. We're even taught not to speak to strangers. Life is not safe, so we learn to be cautious when walking out the front door. And-for those of us whose homes are the troubled places where pain and trauma happen-we learn to be cautious walking in the front door too.
And we treat faith the same way. We want God to be "safe." We want him to place us where there will be no risks, where our comfort and security are givens, where there are guarantees about surviving our experiences unscathed. We want to be able to give to those in need without having to wait on buying that MP3 player for ourselves (to give an example). We want to have all the adventures of a mission trip in a third world country without the possibility of getting lost, injured, or assaulted. We don't want this faith stuff to hurt.
But God makes no such promises. He does promise that he is good (see Psalm 136) and that he has our best interests in mind (see Jeremiah 29:11). But he never said anything about being safe.
C. S. Lewis himself admitted, "I am a safety-first creature. Of all arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as 'Careful! This might lead you to suffering:" When it -comes to loving God and doing what he says, our fears of feeling pain and losing control often keep us from committing entirely to him. We especially don't want God to start digging around in our business in case he finds something unholy that he needs to remove. We kind of like our unholy things, our private sins and fears. Getting rid of them would be painful. So rather than step into the sacred adventure God has for us, we retreat.
There's a story told in Matthew 14:22-33 about a time the disciples were out on a boat in a storm, on the brink of sinking. Suddenly, they saw Jesus walking toward them over the waves, in the midst of the wind, rising up and down with each crest. The disciple Peter, ever the bold and brash one, called out and asked to be able to walk out to him. And Jesus said to come. So Peter gave it a try. But then he focused on the wind and the waves and lost his nerve. This whole walking-on water stuff suddenly didn't look so safe after all. And sure enough, he started to sink-pretty quickly, we can imagine. But Jesus reached out his hand.
Jesus never promises that following in his footsteps will be safe, that we will never come to any harm if we obey God the way he did. Jesus' own footsteps led him to suffering and even death. In fact (and we don't really like to think about this), he promises that suffering will be part of our journey: "Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows" (John 16:33). But then he adds, "But take heart, because I have overcome the world." As Mr. Beaver says about Aslan, "'Course he isn't safe. But he's good."
People who've gone through a difficult loss or trauma often say that their faith is shaken. This may be true of you at some point or another. You lose a loved one or are the victim of violence, and you feel knocked out of the safety of God's protective arms. You question his goodness. The spiritual foundation that you thought was so solid seems more like thin ice. But as Jesus said, "Take heart." Just because your faith is shaken doesn't mean the faith is shaken. The eternal truths of the Kingdom aren't altered or affected by the experience that shook your beliefs.
That's because God's holy character is fixed, immovable. As it says in Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." What you're experiencing is what happens to a sapling when it's blown in a mighty wind. Your faith is shaken because your branches are tossed in some storm of life, not because your roots are torn and pulled up by an earthquake. If you stay put, if you cling with all your might to the good foundation of God's holy character, the storm will pass.
Susan eventually becomes Queen Susan the Gentle, no longer concerned for her own safety but full of compassion for the well-being of others. As a grown woman, chasing down the White Stag in the woods with her brothers and sister, she does express caution when one of them makes the suggestion that they follow wherever this lamp-post leads. But after some discussion, she agrees to go wherever the adventure takes them.
What a contrast between this Susan and the one we see at the beginning of the story! She's now willing to take the next step in faith rather than fear. Not only has she learned to trust her siblings but she puts her trust in Aslan, the one who has led them on all their adventures so far. She's willing to go beyond the comfortable world she knows because she has faith in her king.
We must take each step in this Kingdom with
faith, not fear. Do you trust your King?
God has not given us a spirit if fear and timidity, but if power,
love, and self-discipline.
2 TIMOTHY 1:7
Further In
• When is "safety first" an appropriate attitude toward the dangers of life?
• Why is it not always the appropriate attitude toward following Jesus?
• What are the "unsafe" things Jesus sometimes asks us to do? Why does he ask us to do them?
• How will you trust in God's unshakable character when things aren’t going so well.
• What are you going to do about it?
The Word on Safety
Take some time to read one or more of the following Bible passages:
PROVERBS 3:21-26; LUKE 12:6-7; 12:32; 2 CORI TTHIANS
1:6-7; HEBREWS 10:35-36; 1 JOHN 4:16-18
We all have friends like this: the ones who won’t touch the locker room door handle with their bare hands or sip from our straws. "But I don't have a cold!" you protest, even as your clean-freak friend jumps up to get a drink of her own. Her backpack is full of hand sanitizers and
wipes and antiseptic spray. "Don't touch that," she warns about the daddy longlegs making its way across the biology lab windowsill. You roll your eyes. Is anything safe?
Enter Susan Pevensie. She's usually the first among her siblings to express any kind of fear or hesitation in this Narnia adventure, and it's more than just her need to act according to practical common sense. This caution is born out of her desire to avoid getting hurt. "Is he quite safe?" she asks, upon learning that Aslan is a lion.
For Susan-as with many of us, if we're really honest- "Safety first" is the motto.
Our human nature is prone to such fear and distrust. We start out feeling secure in the arms of our parents or guardians, and then one day (perhaps the first day of kindergarten?) we look out at the world and realize things are not as safe as we supposed. There are bullies on the playground. Our bikes crash. We're even taught not to speak to strangers. Life is not safe, so we learn to be cautious when walking out the front door. And-for those of us whose homes are the troubled places where pain and trauma happen-we learn to be cautious walking in the front door too.
And we treat faith the same way. We want God to be "safe." We want him to place us where there will be no risks, where our comfort and security are givens, where there are guarantees about surviving our experiences unscathed. We want to be able to give to those in need without having to wait on buying that MP3 player for ourselves (to give an example). We want to have all the adventures of a mission trip in a third world country without the possibility of getting lost, injured, or assaulted. We don't want this faith stuff to hurt.
But God makes no such promises. He does promise that he is good (see Psalm 136) and that he has our best interests in mind (see Jeremiah 29:11). But he never said anything about being safe.
C. S. Lewis himself admitted, "I am a safety-first creature. Of all arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as 'Careful! This might lead you to suffering:" When it -comes to loving God and doing what he says, our fears of feeling pain and losing control often keep us from committing entirely to him. We especially don't want God to start digging around in our business in case he finds something unholy that he needs to remove. We kind of like our unholy things, our private sins and fears. Getting rid of them would be painful. So rather than step into the sacred adventure God has for us, we retreat.
There's a story told in Matthew 14:22-33 about a time the disciples were out on a boat in a storm, on the brink of sinking. Suddenly, they saw Jesus walking toward them over the waves, in the midst of the wind, rising up and down with each crest. The disciple Peter, ever the bold and brash one, called out and asked to be able to walk out to him. And Jesus said to come. So Peter gave it a try. But then he focused on the wind and the waves and lost his nerve. This whole walking-on water stuff suddenly didn't look so safe after all. And sure enough, he started to sink-pretty quickly, we can imagine. But Jesus reached out his hand.
Jesus never promises that following in his footsteps will be safe, that we will never come to any harm if we obey God the way he did. Jesus' own footsteps led him to suffering and even death. In fact (and we don't really like to think about this), he promises that suffering will be part of our journey: "Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows" (John 16:33). But then he adds, "But take heart, because I have overcome the world." As Mr. Beaver says about Aslan, "'Course he isn't safe. But he's good."
People who've gone through a difficult loss or trauma often say that their faith is shaken. This may be true of you at some point or another. You lose a loved one or are the victim of violence, and you feel knocked out of the safety of God's protective arms. You question his goodness. The spiritual foundation that you thought was so solid seems more like thin ice. But as Jesus said, "Take heart." Just because your faith is shaken doesn't mean the faith is shaken. The eternal truths of the Kingdom aren't altered or affected by the experience that shook your beliefs.
That's because God's holy character is fixed, immovable. As it says in Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." What you're experiencing is what happens to a sapling when it's blown in a mighty wind. Your faith is shaken because your branches are tossed in some storm of life, not because your roots are torn and pulled up by an earthquake. If you stay put, if you cling with all your might to the good foundation of God's holy character, the storm will pass.
Susan eventually becomes Queen Susan the Gentle, no longer concerned for her own safety but full of compassion for the well-being of others. As a grown woman, chasing down the White Stag in the woods with her brothers and sister, she does express caution when one of them makes the suggestion that they follow wherever this lamp-post leads. But after some discussion, she agrees to go wherever the adventure takes them.
What a contrast between this Susan and the one we see at the beginning of the story! She's now willing to take the next step in faith rather than fear. Not only has she learned to trust her siblings but she puts her trust in Aslan, the one who has led them on all their adventures so far. She's willing to go beyond the comfortable world she knows because she has faith in her king.
We must take each step in this Kingdom with
faith, not fear. Do you trust your King?
God has not given us a spirit if fear and timidity, but if power,
love, and self-discipline.
2 TIMOTHY 1:7
Further In
• When is "safety first" an appropriate attitude toward the dangers of life?
• Why is it not always the appropriate attitude toward following Jesus?
• What are the "unsafe" things Jesus sometimes asks us to do? Why does he ask us to do them?
• How will you trust in God's unshakable character when things aren’t going so well.
• What are you going to do about it?
The Word on Safety
Take some time to read one or more of the following Bible passages:
PROVERBS 3:21-26; LUKE 12:6-7; 12:32; 2 CORI TTHIANS
1:6-7; HEBREWS 10:35-36; 1 JOHN 4:16-18
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