Safety Jesus
safe
Pronunciation:
\?s?f\
Function:
adjective
Inflected Form(s):
saf·er; saf·est
Date:
14th century
1: free from harm or risk : unhurt
2: secure from threat of danger, harm, or loss
3: affording safety or security from danger, risk, or difficulty
I have 3 kids, a wife, a mortgage (albeit in California), a car payment, and a really sad 403b.
If there was ever a dude who needed safety it’s me.
When I read the definition above it creates a bit of nausea in my gut and even behind my man boobs.
The nausea is not because I do not think I need to provide safety for my family. I will protect them to my death.
But I do not want my kids to see their dad live a life where he never had to protect them.
Where his faith kept him safe.
I look at the modern day western church.
Not all, but most.
I think of the safety that is her walls.
I then think of the man and my Lord Jesus.
I think of the risk, danger, and harm that he endured.
I take both those pictures and place them side by side.
Something is wrong. Something is off.
Something is DANGEROUSLY missing.
Los
RAIN IT DOWN
right on LOS.
just wrote about safety (and my desire for unsafety) today on my blog. couldn't get this anchor image out of my head. let me know what you think:
http://thepewview.typepad.com/forty/2009/03/ancho…
I always say I am getting a shirt made that reads "SAFE IS OVER RATED!!" because it is. Give me the edge, my family the edge, my faith the edge, never the safe place.
Send it to me please.
Thanks Carlos for the reminder.
Lord, let me not block myself off from living boldly for you and stepping outside of my comfort zone to boldly proclaim your name – honestly, uncaloused and real.
mhmmmmm
True and what is even more, Jesus was blunt when he told the disciples that if people hated him "how much more" would they despise them. I'm not asking for trouble, for trouble's sake, I just don't want to miss the gospel, because of religion, tradition, fear or any other reason.
Wow. So true
Gary Haugen said it best in the first chapter of Just Courage ::
I don't want to be a part of anything that doesn't require Knee Knocking Dependence on God (extremely loose translation).
I'm down with that life. Jeanne and I are in it right now.
I love it and it freaks me out just about every day.
Jesus was real, not "safe". he hung out with the crazy folks…i think if He were walking in earth today….He'd live right smack dab in the middle of ghetto LA. LOL.
we need to be real like that. even if it means being vulnerable, as long as we remain wise & steadfast in Him…being a follower means not being safe in this world…it just means being safe in His arms
being safe requires no faith. i wish i could, but i cant' even fathom what this country would look like if the church wasn't playing safe. who's to blame? is the church persuading the body to ante up but then fold when the pot gets to big?
again, you are so right Los! I am preaching a series next month called 'a dangerous savior' and adressing some of those same thoughts. thanks man! what are some practical steps to becoming a dangerous disciple and a dangerous church?
Thats another post.
I think safety is an illusion when it comes to church and to christians. If you act too "safe" you're in danger of missing the best that God has. That's a bigger danger, though too often it's not seen that way.
Well put.
love the thoughts on safe church!!
so true. we have mixed messages running around.
I understand your point of not wanting to be "safe"….To get down and dirty for Jesus….and I agree we all need to do more of that…starting with me.
But your post made me think of this song I sing to my son…..I want him to feel safe. Not in me. Not in this world. But in Christ. In his faith. In my faith. I want him to feel safe enough to walk the path assigned to him.
There is a place where we are safe….in the arms of our father…..right?
"There is a place that I know
Where I need more often to go
A place of amazing comfort and rest
Where a smile is never rare
And Your love is as free as the air
And I lack for nothing
When I can see the love in Your eyes
And know that it’s all for me"
"I fear nothing at all
When I’m safe in the arms of my Father
And if I ever fall
I take comfort in knowing
That You are there"
Not safe. But worth it. Thank God for the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Savior…certainly doesn't sound like a path of safety is implied in that name.
I live with this tension everyday too! The bubble is too cushy, too soft, too boring. Being Christian isn't suppose to feel this predictable.
LOVE IT!!!
"Is He safe? No. But he's good." In regard to Aslan in Narnia Thanks for this one man!
Dude. Dude. Dude.
Love it
We as its body are to blame
That is a great song. Jesus is our safety in this world. Because this world has nothing for me.
wow. True
Then make it not so.
I too have been reminded recently of how safe our culture has become. It seems to be the case that our generation has concluded that we will live out our courageous faith (for a certain number of years) and then pave the way for our children to live in mediocrity.
It paves the way to nothing. So true.
Something is missing. But don't think of safety as a bad thing.
We all need a place of safety in which to rest. Our problem in the western Church is that we never leave the safety. Even in our evangelism, we want people to come in to our safe zone where we will talk with them.
We need to get out and live in the unrest of the world so that we can truly appreciate the rest – and safety – that Christ gives us. It's like I saw on Twitter over the last couple of days, you've got to experience the adventure to appreciate the mundane. And you've got to experience the mundane to appreciate the adventure.
I have become so unattached to the "safety" things in the life recently. Only holding on to Jesus and His Word!! Great post! RT
Los, thank you for ruining my day
Very timely as I'm thinking and praying through a lot of that very same stuff. Good friend and I were just talking about that very same thing. wow.
I feel the need to hug you
Amen! This is right in line with what Francis Chan has been speaking on lately in his sermons. Thanks for sharing and stirring my faith bro!
Safety is good at times. But we sometimes we get into the mindset of safety and really it is the mindset of fear and we need to blow that right out of the water. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." – 2 Timothy 1:7
true.
Thanks man,
you're welcome,
Your life ruiner.
you're welcome,
JAson. Thanks for stopping by
But it is not good MOST of the time.
So what are you (all of you) going to do? It's one thing to talk about not wanting to be too safe, but what will that mean to you? One of my Chinese friends has been "detained" in Beijing over a year.
http://www.worthynews.com/5280-china-postpones-tr…
Do I want to join him, no! I will spend more time and energy than I care to reaching out to the Chinese scholars studying briefly in my own community.
Or how about this. Where is the line with wisdom in finances…living simply, saving for the future, investing, but not so much that you are safe in your finances but so you have more to give away. How do we keep it in our hands without closing our grip over them?
Placing those two pictures side-by-side brings some harsh truth and reality to who and what we have become and what we were supposed to be.
I recently left a post on my blog after watching a video produced by Hillsong, where they paralleled American-life with poverty. It infuriated me!
Check it out and let me know what you think…
http://www.antwondavis.com/2009/03/god-be-solutio…
there is nothing safe about taking up your cross daily and walking with Him. Perhaps too many Christians (myself included) have an easier time quoting that scripture than actually living it.
Ah! TJ hits me in the face with that one! So, so true!
I used to think God was safe. I used to dream of safe when I was younger. And while I now view that belief as a childhood dream – I do know today that God is indeed Good. I really love your blog. I love your transparency, the honesty and the heart behind it.
Great stuff.
I'm curious. I'm a huge fan of Brennan Manning, and cannot help but notice the Ragamuffin title – is their a tie?
I've learned recently that the most dangerous place we can venture is into our own s#!t.
Matt 10:28 —
We often perceive danger outside of ourselves in circumstances, but most often it lingers closer to home. So much of Christianity is overwhelmingly concerned with what's "out there" as opposed to what's "in here". We are quite frankly: blind cowards (even those living in dire situations).
We have two mortal enemies in life: Satan and ourselves. These two "bosom buddies" have done more to destroy safety that any hundred-thousand things combined!
False safety is believing we're alright, good, moral, decent, nice, cool, capable, secure people – that's exactly the delusion the Evil One would have us living in. Real safety is believing that we're naked, scared, cold, alone, f'd up, selfish, inadequate, sinful fools; and that God experienced all these in Jesus to let us know these dark truths won't ever kill our souls.
Instead, He gives those who venture there a LIFE worth living! Even those who are simple nobody's to the rest of the world!
Interesting… My brother (I can't speak for myself as I don't have kids yet) tries to teach his children (ages 9, 7, and 2.5), that God never promised they would be safe… sometimes God asks us to do dangerous things – he moved overseas with his kids and wife to a "closed" country for 2 years. What he does instead is teach them about courage, that in the middle of the danger, because of God, we can have courage to stand up in it and do the right thing. He wants them to know that following God is sometimes risky, and sometimes we will get burned, but God will be big enough to walk with us through it. He just won't necessarily keep us safe from it all.
Consequently his kids are some of the coolest kids I know (I might be biased). My niece challenges me in generosity and compassion on a daily basis. She is more in love with God, and pursues Him more than any other 9 year old I've ever met. She is disappointed that she can't go with them on the next trip to India… to visit lepers, orphans, women and children being rescued from prostitution. You know, stuff that every 9 year old is thinking about… Her name is Esther, and I think that is fitting.
I definitely don't intend to pick on you at all. As I said I don't have kids, but I can understand the desire to comfort. I'm just offering a different perspective, because it was one that when my brother first shared it with me, caught me off gaurd, but now – I'd do the exact same thing.
Need to say nothing more than: Thanks for the reminder!!!
Thats why I'm moving to Barahona in July. Goodbye safety and misery of the cubicle.
Seize the freaking day man.
Word. Coming up to ATL for do.justice. Psyched.
I am reminded all the time that when Jesus told his followers to "take up their cross" in order to follow him, it wasn't some symbolic gesture. It was literally signing up to be killed. The cross in his day was not some symbolic image used to represent Jesus. It was the method of a torturing death. To sign up to follow Jesus, was to accept the fact that death for your beliefs was probable. In our culture today it's acceptable to believe the total opposite- that if you love Jesus, then everything will be ok- he'll "be with us" and "keep us safe". And that's just NOT what he promised.
Am I STILL willing to follow Him? If there's a cross involved?
ouch. That was hard to read. Thanks for sharing.
yw
People's instinct is to strive for two things Christ does not promise:
Safety
&
Success
I don't think we choose safety or danger. We choose to follow Jesus and allow Him to be evident in our lives. Whether that brings us safety or harm is up to Him. Of course man can't harm our soul so I guess if we are in Him we are safe to begin with.
I think you're confusing the perception of safety with real safety. JESUS told us that safety is an illusion. In this world you WILL have tribulation. It's a given. The world sees this tenuous world as a safe place even though it's not. And what's dangerous to them (death) is no threat to Believers. JESUS has overcome the world and we (Believers) *have* safety in Him. That's the point, though it may seem unsafe (missionaries in "danger" of losing their lives every day) to nonbelievers these missionaries are actually in the safest place of all, in the Father's Hands doing His will. The safest place of all is in the flames of the martyr's fire.
Saftey is an illusion that we project in this country and sadly in the Church. As I read the book of Acts there is nothing safe about what the apostles did. We are called to live unsafe, uncomfortable lives. Being in fulltime ministry this is the reality that I wrestle with, the illusion of saftey. Keep it rockin LosWhit!
I grew up in a very sheltered environment, where people in my life were very risk averse. For whatever reason, that's never been me. As a result, I fail a lot more than I'd like, but – to be honest – safe sucks. As has been said in virtually every comment on here, Jesus didn't do anything safe. If He's our role-model, why do we think our lives should be safe? Sure, He's our sanctuary, but only so we can be revived and ready to back out to battle.
this post went to my bones
just made post w/ u in it
let me know if prob
http://roxannekristina.blogspot.com/2009/03/as-yo…
Thanks for reminding us to be dangerous. And for our kids too..yeah let's be martyrs together if that's what He calls us to…
If anyone loves thinking outside of the box, it's me, but as much as I do agree with wanting to protect my family and fulfill that role, we have to remember that Jesus refers to himself as a Hen gathering his little chicks (Luke 13:34) and Him being the shepherd and we are his sheep.
This paints us in the light of being unable to provide safety on our own. At the end of it, we run towards our stronghold as King David did and beg for safety and protection from our enemies.
Just another side.
Killer ink, by the way.
-Dave/Texas
I think this starts with social norms of parenting. We place our perspective of parenting on God and assume that we are right. So we want to protect our kids from all things that might be dangerous.
When I was a kid (6th grade or so) I would ride my bike 10 to 15 miles a day during the summer, all over town. I know kids that lived in New York or Chicago that took public transportation on their own at 6 or 8 years old. But recently parents were investigated for neglect because they put their kid on public commuter train (I think he was 11) by himself. They dropped him off on his own, the friends that he was visiting were at the station to pick him up. It was a 20 min trip and he had done it dozens of times before. But this day the train conductor stopped the train (literally didn't allow it to leave the station), called the police, turned the kid over to child services, wouldn't let the child call his parents on his cell phone, wouldn't talk to the parents that were there to pick the kid up.
So we have a society that says that even things that are extremely safe (like sending a kids on a ride on a train with a cell phone) are in fact dangerous. So our perspective is so out of wack that we don't even know whether what we are doing is safe or not.
This really spoke to me. For the next two weeks my son will be continuing to attend the Christian school he has been in for two years now. He attends this school because I was fearful of sending him to a public elementary school. I was fearful because there were many kids at that school who were not like him (different nationality). That is the truth and I am ashamed of it.
In two weeks, due to a move, he will be enrolled in a new school to finish the year. We have a choice to make: another Christian school, or the community public schools. I told my wife just the other day that we should put him in the public schools for two reasons: 1) it's FREE (private school costs big $$), and 2) I don't want to isolate him from the world due to my fears and prejudices. I want him to never be held back by those things. I don't want to be held back by those things.
So, I have asked God to forgive me of both my fear, and the prejudices I had buried inside of me. I do not want my son, my wife or I to live isolated and in fear because of a lack of faith and trust in a God who calls us to live on the edge for Him. I want to have a risky, adventurous faith that takes me beyond my comfort zones to people and places that I am not used to. I want to be a better follower of Christ, and a better witness for Him to every person around me. I want even the most minor biases to be swallowed up in an overwhelming love for people.
I want that for my son more than anything.
I am pretty sure something is really wrong too man. I feel it in my bones. No joke. We're missing it.
This really spoke to me. For the next two weeks my son will be continuing to attend the Christian school he has been in for two years now. He attends this school because I was fearful of sending him to a public elementary school. I was fearful because there were many kids at that school who were not like him. That is the truth and I am ashamed of it.
In two weeks, due to a move, he will be enrolled in a new school to finish the year. We have a choice to make: another Christian school, or the community public schools. I told my wife just the other day that we should put him in the public schools for two reasons: 1) it's FREE (private school costs big $$), and 2) I don't want to isolate him from the world due to my fears and prejudices. I want him to never be held back by those things. I don't want to be held back by those things.
So, I have asked God to forgive me of both my fear, and the prejudices I had buried inside of me. I do not want my son, my wife or I to live isolated and in fear because of a lack of faith and trust in a God who calls us to live on the edge for Him. I want to have a risky, adventurous faith that takes me beyond my comfort zones to people and places that I am not used to. I want to be a better follower of Christ, and a better witness for Him to every person around me. I want even the most minor biases to be swallowed up in an overwhelming love for people.
I want that for my son more than anything.
I caught sight of my reflection
I caught it in the window
I saw the darkness in my heart
I saw the signs of my undoing
They had been there from the start
And the darkness still has work to do
The knotted chord's untying
They're heated and they're holy
Oh they're sitting there on high
So secure with everything they're buying
-peter gabriel (blood of eden)
I heard on Christian Radio here the other day that the music we were listening was Safe for the Whole family. I understand what they mean but it just caught me wrong. Since when is Christianity safe? Ask Bonnhoeffer if Christianity is safe. Anyway I liked your post man. I got turned on to you by Chris Jackson in Nashville.
So, I think we all have to ask ourselves where does God want us to get out of our comfort zones? What is our focus? Are we here to glorify Him? If so we can't hide behind, "I'm gonna live for Him" We need to get out there and tell others of Jesus' saving sacrifice. I have been asking Him what can I "a stay at home mom" do? Lately I have invited my hairdresser to church, gave a tract and invited the cashier at walmart, and shared my testimony on my blog. All things that make me sweat. I can't even imagine if I had actually witnessed to these people. How weak am I!!!
What I was trying to say above…is that I have to be willing reach my neighbor and the people I see everyday (safe) before I go to the…insert my idea of dangerous…
i challenged a few 100+brick & mortar old boys at a conference this week on the online presence and getting out in the streets and out of the board meetings and into their community.
I'm convinced that the opposite of love isn't hate; it's fear. Hate's just a byproduct of fear. And the only way we get over the fear is to let go of all the things we cling to for safety and live out of perfect love. Which means doing things we don't necessarily want to do, worshipping with people we don't like, letting our little worlds look more like God's kingdom, and, maybe hardest of all, realizing that only God can truly protect us from anything. Even when we're lucky enough to have dads who would do anything to keep us safe.
Great song about this – "God is a River" by Peter Mayer.
"God is a river; not just a stone.
God is a wild raging rapid and a slow meandering flow
God is a deep and narrow passage and a peaceful sandy shoal.
God is a river swimmer, so let go."
Humm…think I need a definition of safety before I jump on this band wagon. No one in a persecuted Church is going to tell you unsafe is where it's at! They might be able to say God is their refuge and mean it but I think they might be shaking their heads at this kind of talk.