Faith and Sight

Safety, revisited

So I have not been able to quit thinking about safety.

What makes a person safe? Are we talking about safety of body or safety of soul? What makes anything safe?

We think something is safe when it is protected from harm, or from being stolen from us, or from being destroyed. We have even made a noun out of the word, but all the westerns I watched as a kid usually had safe-cracking as one of a handful of plot lines. Nothing is safe, even when it’s in a safe, seems to be the point.

I’m going to keep thinking about it. And I keep thinking about it in the context of this verse: Matthew 10:28 – “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” I’m pretty sure he’s referring to Satan, and I think theologians universally agree with me on that, but I suppose I should check and be sure. Once, I told a friend of mine that “Satan had overplayed his hand,” and that I was wising up on his schemes. My friend was alarmed at my foolishness, and he isn’t alarmed by much. I took note at the time, but now, two to three years later, I’m living proof that he was absolutely and positively correct. When I made that comment, Satan was just getting warmed up. And I have no reason to believe he or his minions are taking any kind of a break at the moment, either. That’s why I have to get down to business and figure this whole safety thing out.

There’s also this verse: Matthew 6:19-21 – “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” It seems that Jesus isn’t asking us to stop wanting our precious things to be safe, he’s just telling us to change what we consider precious. That’s so like him.

I’m also thinking about fear and safety in the context of trauma and the subsequent avoidance that so infamously ruins lives. (Can’t get lost in the Bible, you see. Must have some science. They always agree, you know. But my rant on that subject would belong on an entirely different blog.) I explained to my friend who lost her son that she absolutely had to think about the terrible events of the day he died, because otherwise she would live the rest of her life in the shadow and fear of remembering something that she simultaneously finds impossible to forget. The best thing is to just face it. Take a traumatic memory and turn it into just a bad memory by staring it down, refusing to avoid the pain of confronting it.

Safety and fear seem inextricably linked. Safety means freedom from fear. You are afraid when you do not think you are safe.

The reason I keep thinking about this is because it seems to me that if I could wrap my head around what Jesus is getting at when he tells us over and over in the gospels, “do not fear,” I would have a happier life. And who couldn’t use a happier life? I’m not sure he means what I’ve always thought he meant. I used to think we were supposed to be brave. Now I think its the ‘being brave’ that has gotten me into lots of trouble. But what does he mean? How, in an unsafe world, are we supposed to live without fear? It’s just not a practical thing to ask of us. (Right?)

Isaiah 8:11-15: “For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.” I’m pretty sure I’ve been snared and taken, in some areas of my life. I’ve definitely fallen and been broken.

I want to be free of the fear that is always running my life instead of me. Plus, I want to be able to tell my friend that God is safe. She needs to know this. I really think he is, I just can’t sort it out yet. After all: he says “there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.” And his love is perfect, so I’m eagerly waiting for my fear to be driven away.