Safe and Good

Safe: syn. Mediocre. Average. Protected. Guarded. Sheltered. Out of harms way. Unscathed. Undamaged. Riskless. Guaranteed. Cautious. Conservative. Unadvenruous. Impotent. Disabled. Safe.

I remember when Carter was born and one of my biggest concerns was his safety. I didn't want to put him on the ground for fear Luke would, I don't know, eat him or something. I didn't want him near the stairs, near sickness, out in public, in the nursery, anywhere he might be in danger. That was good. It's your job as a parent to protect your child, especially when they are unable of anything but sleeping and pooping.

As he's gotten older I've tried to chill out about that. I confess I'm still bad about it at times. But I'm not as afraid of stuff like that. I find that I don't give a second thought to him on stairs, going outside, being with other kids etc. Sure, a lot of the time the environments are somewhat controlled or I am nearby.

I sat with one of the most influential people in my life a couple weeks back at El Rancherito. I credit him with at least the majority of the reason why my heart for missions is so strong. He had more to do with at least my thinking and probably my heart for it than anyone else. He told me his son is a missionary in Europe, 2 others are spending much of their time in Haiti and the 4th is involved in missions trips on a regular basis. I sarcastically wondered where they got a world vision like that.

I actually said the words to him that one goal I have as a father is to have my kids have a heart like that.

Over winter break we had an event in Florida. We stayed in a hotel in Kissimmee and on the first night a group who'd traveled in a charter bus had 2 rooms broken into. They stole some "valuables" like cash, CD player and cell phones. The leader came to me and actually challenged me saying, "The only way we'll stay here (in the hotel) is if you can guarantee me with 100% certainty our kids will be safe the rest of the week." Looks like you need a new hotel then. Seriously, I don't care if you stay at the Motel 6 or the Westin, you're never 100% safe.

I was reading through my Bible this morning again. I actually pulled out the old school Concordance in book form, not the online one but that book that fills up half a shelf and makes me look oooh so studious. I looked up safe and safely. After eliminating the Psalms and Proverbs and the passages that dealt with travel in specific situations (i.e. Nehemiah and Paul) I was left with strikingly little. In fact when it came to the New Testament it was even thinner. I kept running my pea brain through passges I knew and couldn't come up with much. There's that one about him being with me when I walk through the valley but nothing about safe. The one thing that kept coming to mind (I haven't seen the movie by the way) was the line from The Chronicles. It doesn't have to do so much with us as with Him but it was still interesting.I went and found that and it goes something like this:

"Is -- is he a man?" asked Lucy."Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of the Beasts? Aslan is a lion -- the Lion, the great Lion.""Ooh," said Susan, "I thought he was a man. Is he -- quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.""That you will, dearie, and make 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 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."

I got an email from an old student today. They're thinking about a mission trip but the folks are afraid its too dangerous (read, not safe). I have a feeling they wanted me to guarantee safety which I wasn't going to do any more than I was going to guarantee that elder he wouldn't be offended by One Time Blind again after their opening night. What I found really ironic was the porposed location is the same one I'll be traveling to myself later this year.

Now I don't want to come across as a jerk. Parents have a responsibility I know that. But I do too. I've had the discussion a brazilian times with guys about being more responsible after you get married and then especially when you have kids. I have no desire to leave my life a widow and my child fatherless.

But is that any worse than living such a safe life that that safe life isn't really worth living in the first place?

Now, we have a responsibility to live as wise people. You won't see me walking into maximum security prisions with a"God hates Criminals" t-shirt on. You also won't see me flying on some airline with only a 50% success rate on take offs and landings. And this is no excuse for not wearing a seat belt (though I do that much too often) But come on, how safe is our little sheltered world anyway?

I have to be honest and say that though I wouldn't change a thing about my life growing up, I was very sheltered. I was kept safe from a lot of that "stuff" out there. Somehow though, there is a fine line where we're still to be in and not of but have enough saltiness about us that its actually more "dangerous" for them that we're out there than the other way around.

I have some friends who are getting ready to head to Israel. I have to admit that one of my first thoughts was "isn't that dangerous?" Maybe there'd be a better time. Is it really that important? A couple days later I found out the wife of one of the conference guys has cancer. It's been caught early and after 2 surgeries they were confident they got it. Turns out they didn't. The "good news" is its very treatable and though its spread to lymph nodes they are very optimistic and upbeat about the possibilites of victory. Doesn't sound very safe to me.

I know its probably bad logic to talk about travel and life expereinces in the same sentence with illness and uncontrollable things. But at the end of our lives are we going to want people to say about us "She lived a safe life."? Maybe that isn't that bad, but switch out safe with one of the words at the top of this post. No offense, I think those words suck.

I guess I say all this becuase last year I decided to quit missing out on things simply for the sake of safety. I don't think we're called to be safe any more than we're called to be lukewarm. I think we need to simply look at life as risky, realizing things like cancer, illness, hatred and greed know no barriers. There isn't really any foolproof protection for these things. Life is risky, but it is in those risky moments where we're often made most alive.

So here's to living an extraordinary life. Here's to being risky and not always playing it safe. Here's to adding to the portfolio of life things that bring us true joy. And may we do it all for His glory and not ours. And in the meantime, I will make no promises to any parents that their children will be safe. We'll be smart, and wise in our preparation--but we won't with 100% certainty guarantee safety.

One final thought--its not scripture, its just Lewis. But if God is not safe but simply good, maybe that's all we're called to be as well.