Safest Place

Over the past couple of months I've pondered about the issue of safety. Now, those who know me know that I tend to sideline this factor in the things I choose to do (see "Breaks and Boons" post picture). Much to my mother's dismay, safety isn't held in very high value for me. However, living in Nigeria has challenged my stubbornness and I've begun to be a bit more cautious. Whether I like it or not, I have to be more prudent in how I live daily life here. All this has given way to questions in my mind-how God thinks about safety? What's been ingrained in me growing up is that God protects, shelters, and guards us from danger because He wants us to live safe lives. But the more I get to know this Lord of mine, the more blasphemous that sounds. A quick survey of the lives of those who've followed that radical Nazarene indicates that things don't end with a white picket fence and peaceful death while sleeping. On the contrary, for those first followers their days were marked by prison, danger, lashings, ship-wrecks, danger, ostracizing, beheading, danger, crucifixion, hunger, and oh, danger. Hmm...we really don't talk about this very much in our churches. We toss out the warning that people might not like us for what we believe, but to that we should just pray for the "lost souls" of those who mock us. How often do we do all we can to avoid anything uncomfortable? I recently devoured this book by Erwin McManus, The Barbarian Way and found some refreshing words I'd like to share.
"Jesus understood that His purpose was to save us not from pain and suffering, but from meaninglessness."

Erwin goes on to talk about the cliché, "The safest place to be is in the center of God's will." The saying has it's origins with Corrie ten Boom and her sister, Betsie, who were captives in Nazi concentration camps. This is the context in which the "safety of God's will" was being fleshed out and I must say, I think we've strayed quite a distance from the original meaning. Here's what Erwin says,:

"Clearly neither of them concluded that this expression conveyed a belief that God would keep them from suffering hardship and even death. Betsie’s statement was a declaration that to walk in the character of Christ is always the right choice, regardless of outcome or consequence. We have somehow perverted this more primal understanding to a far more civilized one. Instead of finding confidence to live as we should regardless of our circumstances, we have used it as justification to choose the path of least resistance, least difficulty, least sacrifice. Instead of concluding it is best to be wherever God wants us to be, we have decided that wherever it is best for us to be is where God wants us. Actually, God’s will for us is less about our comfort that it is about our contribution. God would never choose for us safety at the cost of significance. God created you so that your life would count, not so that you could count the days of your life.”

Though there's a part of me that wishes my God was one that would never let anything bad happen to me, never let armed robbers in, never let corrupt people get to leadership positions, never let my heart be wrung, a deeper part is relieved to know that my God has a more eternal perspective than that. Significance and contribution to the Kingdom of Light win out over safety and comfort.

Mama, kada ki damuwa = Mom, don't you worry :)