Years ago while living in the suburbs of Cleveland, I had a conversation with an elderly neighbor about our home security system. We had just purchased the home on a quiet cobblestone street and our neighbor commended us on the importance of our security system. The truth was, although I had kept the sign up in our yard warning intruders that the house was armed with a security system, I had canceled the service because I was too cheap to pay the monthly fee. The reality is that our culture is consumed by safety. We have organizations and groups dedicated specifically to providing safety while we work, travel, eat, and sleep. As a father of two energetic girls, safety is usually (according to my wife I am using the term loosely) at the forefront of my mind. I wonder sometimes if we have allowed our obsession with safety neuter our relationship with Christ. Has our passion for safety affected the way we choose to live out the Christian life or define God's purpose and plan for us? How often have we readily agreed with the statement, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life?"; all the while defining this "wonderful plan" based on our desire for safety, security, and immediate happiness. We forget to leave room for suffering and self-denial, both key aspects of discipleship as defined by Christ in the Gospels. Christ said in Matthew 16:24 that, "If anyone would come after me [Christ], let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Self-denial does not correlate with safety. In fact, self-denial is the antonym of safety. Why then have we defined a "safe" life with material prosperity a sign that one is living out God's "wonderful plan" for their life? What if God's "wonderful plan" for our lives was that we find redemption through Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross and then live as radicals whose passion to bring glory to God outweighs the passion for comfort and safety? What if Dietrich Bonhoeffer is right in saying that to endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ?[1] What if our brothers and sisters in Christ being persecuted for their faith around the world are the ones truly living out God's "wonderful plan" for their life?
In the end of course all this is easy for me to write as I sit "safely" in my office where I am paid to be a "professional Christian". May my own desire for safety be crushed by a life driven to take up my cross daily and follow Christ, all the while basking in Christ's promise found in Matthew 11:28 to give rest to the heavy laden.
