Friday, May 13, 2005

Safe

There is a lot of talk in the air lately about being "safe". I am not talking about in the context of the physical world. The circles where I have been hearing it have been in the spiritual context. What is your response when you hear the term "safe" used in that context?

First, I think it is important to acknowledge that being safe in the physical world makes a lot of sense.........in fact it is down right crucial and essential! If you aren't safe, you lose your life and probably endanger the lives of others also. How many of us get steamed when we see someone driving carelessly? How many of you remind your teenager to be safe when they leave the house? Being safe is mandatory....in the physical world. Simply said, not being safe leads to death in the physical world.

As we all know, things in the spiritual world are all upside down.....topsy turvy. It makes NO sense! If you want to live, you must die. If you want to be first, you must be last. If you want to be the most important, you must be the servant. If you want to be really rich in spirit, you must be poor in spirit. If you want to be strong, you must be weak. Instead of hating your enemies, love them! Would it be safe to say that in the spiritual world, most things are the direct opposite of what we think of in the physical world? The world view vs the spiritual view. Well, what I want to submit for your consideration is that the same holds true with the concept of being "safe". Yeah, that means "safe" in the spiritual context has the direct opposite consequence from the physical world. Being safe in the spiritual world can kill you, and endanger the spiritual lives of those around you.
"Kill you" meaning to make you ineffective and irrelevant. Have you ever seen someone you considered to be dead spiritually? Ever seen a congregation you considered dead spiritually? My bet is that in both instances you find being "safe" a priority. Are there examples in scripture of people and groups of people who put a priority on being "safe"? Ask Joshua and Caleb about the other 10 wanting to be safe, and the consequences. How long did choosing to be safe cause the Israelites to be ineffective and irrelevant to the world around them? Another insight is that without exception, all "safe" choices are made out of FEAR of something. In this spiritual world, fear can only exist as a result of a lack of faith. So yes, the link is that safe choices are made ultimately because of a lack of faith. Let's go back to scripture again and see those who had incredible faith, and the power it gave them over fear and safe choices. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and the fire, Daniel and the lions, Hezekiah and facing Sennacherib...and the list goes on and on. All of them could have made safe choices. Their faith wouldn't allow it. Safe and faith can't coexist. Wanta move on to the New Testament? Here we go! I wonder how things might have been different if Joseph had put away Mary, which undoubtedly would have been the safe choice! Peter could have stayed in the boat, Zacchaeus could have stayed home, the blind man in John 9 could have given the Pharisees a safe answer when they had him in their Kangaroo court. Nope, no safe actions by those folks. Their faith motivated them to be bold, in the face of whatever was before them, because they knew God was greater than the thing they might fear. Ahh..........and then we come to Jesus. Saving the best for last! First off, I think for sure the safe thing would have been to stay with the Father instead of coming here for us. Jesus was consistent, and from that first choice to his last one, he ALWAYS shunned the safe choice. He chose quite the opposite, really. Not only was he NOT safe, he was the complete opposite......he chose to be RADICAL! We all acknowledge who the folks were who were making the safe choices, like not healing on the sabbath and the likes. The Pharisees wanted to be safe, at all cost. And Jesus drove them crazy! To be more accurate, they hated him for it....to the point they looked for ways to kill him, and eventually did. Other examples of Jesus not being safe? Who did he hang out with? How safe was it to pick common fishermen and tax collectors as his leaders? How about choosing Saul? Can you hear that choice being discussed in the Sanhedrin committee meeting? No way would they have chosen him......too risky! He might offend someone......namely them! And last but not least, thank goodness Jesus wasn't safe when it came to the cross. If he had been, you and I would never know what it would be like to be safe from sin and safe from Satan. We never would have had the chance to experience God's SAVING grace. You see, being radical and bold and acting in faith, instead of fear, is what leads to REALLY being safe........ain't it a topsy-turvy upside-down spiritual world? Yeah, that is why we feel like aliens here. When we aren't making safe choices, that is. In our walk with him, He NEVER, EVER calls us to be "safe". Why? Because instead of leading to life, it leads to death.

I John 2:6 "Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did".

It wasn't a safe walk.

15 Comments:

At 12:46 PM, Blogger dutro said...

Man!! Whoo!! Woah!!

That'll preach!

 
At 1:23 PM, Blogger JAW said...

DU,

Thanks for this roadtrip through scripture. You make a wonderful point - if you take scripture as a whole, it's one big, thick book of God's people acting boldly, and safety isn't rewarded anywhere along the way.

You know - even in the physical world, safety rarely works at an organizational level. By its very definition, entrepreneurship is not safe. Where's the safety in listening to a Harvard dropout from Seattle talk about something weird called an "operating system?"

Great post!

 
At 1:27 PM, Blogger Donna G said...

Oh yeah! And in addition to not being safe, Jesus didn't worry about hurting someone's feelings or ruffling someone's feathers. For that matter neither did these Old Testatment heros. Acting boldly in love requires that we only look above for guidance.

 
At 1:59 PM, Blogger Keith Brenton said...

Man, I'm going to be grappling with this one for a while. This just isn't a post I can leave and say, "Well, David, that was very nice. You made some excellent points. A little risky, there. I'm sure the waves will settle out after a while."

Oh, no. Now I have to be gutsy.

Being gutsy is fine for people like Cope, or Fajita - or even that librarian Wiser and his conventions in Cleveland or Cincinnati or wherever. But I'm a nice guy. I like being nice.

Leave me alone, will you?

I'm being nice down here in my hole.

 
At 2:34 PM, Blogger JP said...

Yeah, what Keith said. Great post David. Risk taking and uncomfortability does come with faith. Trust also ties in with this. When you are just hanging on to that rope (Safe) dont struggle crying out to God to help you, grease that puppy up and let go and fall into the trusting hands of God, thats risky, that is stepping out of what we know to be safe

 
At 5:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interesting post. Around church planting circles we have been recently talking about how we as Americans place enormous value into being SAFE - both physically and spiritually. I wonder how other cultures who place less stock into safety might embody the Gospel in terms of risk-taking faith?

 
At 12:25 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

None of us Gentiles would be Christians. The safe choice was to leave the church another Jewish sect. But Paul and Barnabas would have none of that. And eventually Peter and James and others. God pushed them, sometimes not very gently, to boldly go where the gospel had not gone before.

Underwood in Wineskins? Snowballs are melting and graves are spinning and the Fred Sanfords are having another heart attack!

 
At 8:13 AM, Blogger Milton Stanley said...

Manual trackback: Great post, David. I've linked to it at my blog. Peace.

 
At 9:56 AM, Blogger Keith said...

My brother, you stretched a single into a homerun and you're SAFE at HOME!I'm with Brenton...I feel like I need to do something now. Thanks for inspiring us to take the road less traveled...the narrow road. Hoyt with Craig on the Wineskins deal. Good job brother.
Keith

 
At 11:27 AM, Blogger PatrickMead said...

Well done, my friend. I just wrote an article for Church Growth magazine called Bold Evangelism. I think your article should be sent there, too. As I tell my son and my congregation: Fear is not an option. Ever.

 
At 12:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is very good! Thanks for the challenge. A few years ago, I heard Edwin Friedman (Generation to Generation) say that some people are "peace-mongers"--that is, they are willing to sacrifice most in anything if it might keep people happy. A far cry from what Jesus meant by "peace-makers".

 
At 3:51 PM, Blogger Steve said...

To borrow a sports analogy: many football games are lost when the defense goes into a prevent defense. One coach once said all a prevent defense does is prevent you from winning. Once we have a relationship with God, there is no prevent defense. It is play hard! Press on toward the prize! Great post David.

 
At 9:45 PM, Blogger Jeff said...

Great post, David. As soon as I read it, I thought about something I read recently in The Chronicles of Narnia. Susan hears about Aslan from Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. Susan asks:

"Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."

"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver; "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking they're either braver than most or else just silly."

"Then he isn"t safe?" said Lucy.

"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

 
At 8:46 AM, Blogger David U said...

Jeff, what an AWESOME quote! Thanks for sharing that! I have told this story before, but I read all "The Chronicles of Narnia" as a 4th grader in Nigeria. I remember telling my mom that the first person I wanted to meet in Heaven was C.S. Lewis! :)

I don't know if he is still first on the list, but I still look forward to being with him.....for eternity!!

Thanks again, bro!
DU

 
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