Safety Drill

There’s something in our culture that has been ingrained in every American, and it’s the belief that we have a God-given right to security and safety. This is the right that leads us to fight wars on terror and imprison people that want to hurt us.

This is a mentality of a nation, but not of Christ and His teachings. Somehow the two have become mixed in a way that makes Christians think that safety and security is a core fundamental of our faith. What is it in us that declares that Jesus wants us to be safe? Why do we try to mix safety with the gospel?

Something is missing when we claim to believe in a man who was crucified for His teachings but we don’t want to feel unsafe. Something is missing when we claim to believe to be one of His disciples, but we don’t want to live the same life or die the same death that they did. Something is missing when Jesus declared the lack of safety and lack of comforts of His gospel, but yet we still try to have both.

We think of safety when we think of placing our trust in situations and goods that we feel we can believe in. Air bags, front doors, alarm systems, guns……all ways to make us feel safe. Safety is marketed to us in car insurance commercials as they prey upon our fears of car accidents. Safety is marketed to us in alarm commercials as they take advantage of our fears of having someone break into our homes.

Ultimately, no matter how many possessions we have, no matter how much wealth, no matter how much safety we feel, we must acknowledge that as believers in Christ we can only rely on God to protect us. And if He chooses for us the path of suffering, we must trust in Him.

It worries me when believers embrace material goods and comforts and claim that Jesus is ok with it. It worries me when believers brush off clear teachings in scripture because it’s not safe to follow them in today’s world, which suggests that God didn’t know that it wouldn’t be safe to follow His teachings in the 21st century.

How can we follow a Savior who loved so recklessly and lived so differently that He was killed for it, and think that safety is our right as Christians? How can we justify not living our Savior’s teachings in scripture because they are unsafe? Jesus told us that people would know that we were His disciples by our obedience to His teachings, not by our safety. When safety and security are more important than obedience, we have missed the heart of our God.

But no one is talking about this cultural ideal that has mixed with our faith. And Christians spend their time being limited and bound by their fears and their desire for safety that they believe is a God-given right. All the while, they attend church, study the Bible and follow a Savior who declares how unsafe it is to follow God.

Job, Moses, Noah, Jeremiah, Paul, Peter, James, John…..pick a name. Pick a prophet. Pick a saint. Ask them how safe it is.