It doesn’t require someone whose paranoid or an alarmist to be aware of the fact that the world we live in is not always safe.
Indeed news bulletins often point out just how unsafe we are whether by reports of burglaries or kidnappings, the viewer is brought into a keen understanding that anything can happen. Understandably some people live fearfully. Although some good safety measures have been put in place, more often than not trust in people is replaced with the preference to restrict people’s access to areas. All to be on the safe side.
The sad thing about the fear-driven approach to safety is that it forgets something that’s also good to know about being safe. Namely that when you are safe you can be who you are called to be without limitation or hindrance,
My last born has chicken pox. Despite elements of its tiring effects, she knew that the safe place to be was near her mother. Something about that allowed her to rest in the arms of her Mum and be completely who was without fear. The physical environment wasn’t the first way she knew it was safe – it was the relationship that helped her find safety.
Sometimes the resources available for safety heighten the sense of solitude. They do not give peace of mind, they exacerbate a sense that there is no peace. There is no outlet to be who you are without fear of reprisal. It’s all clammed up and the sense of security is actually the sense of restrictive confinement that does not make you truly safe at all.
Finding a safe place is all about not just being protected but enabling you to express for the purpose of healing and find a place of restoration – that is not a physical thing, that’s a relational thing especially as it relates to how we see God, ourselves and the world around us. The right view of God and the relationship we have with Him brings its safety. As He calls us to relationship with Him, so He calls us into Himself to find sanctuary.
That right view of God then helps us relate to the self and each other in a relational way that does not put off,close and hide from. It demonstrates the capacity for people to witness and then be impacted by Jesus’ example of showing relationship with Him to be the only safe place of worth.
There remains safety under the arms of the Almighty. He makes it alright.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 