Is it... safe?

"Is - is he a man?" asked Lucy.
"Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not.  I tell you he is the King of the 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'd thought he was a man.  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." - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Safe: protected from or not exposed to danger or risk; not likely to be harmed or lost. That is a word that Americans like a lot... something that we value very highly.  We like to be safe and we like to be comfortable.  We even pay companies thousands of dollars a year to protect us from risk, should an unfortunate event ever come our way.  We come home each afternoon, close our garage doors, and seal ourselves in from the outside world.  We lock ourselves up in our christian bubbles, praying that we don't actually encounter an unbeliever... and especially not an unpleasant unbeliever.  We do everything in our power to stay in our comfort zones... to surround ourselves with safe people... and then hop from church to church or job to job at the slightest whiff of a challenge to our norms. Safe.

Perhaps that's one of the reasons our culture is so unfit.  Our bodies don't stay fit by themselves.  They require challenges to keep them in good condition.  There is no neutral.  Doing nothing means you are actually losing ground.  You have to work just to maintain ground.  To improve fitness requires even more work.  But we like safe.  We don't want to risk the possiblity of discomfort or pain... or even that we may get a little out of breath and break a sweat.  That doesn't feel good, so we stay safe... on the couch, in front of our TVs, in our air-conditioned homes.

For those who are sincere followers of Jesus, this culture of safeness poses a great problem. Jesus is not safe.  Truly following Jesus is not safe.  Jesus never promised comfortable and safe... but what He did promise was that He would be with us until the end of the age... and while Jesus is not safe, He is good.  He is the good shepherd who protects His sheep.  Jesus was always calling his disciples out into dangerous waters.  Twice, as His disciples were following Him, they got stuck out in the middle of the Sea of Galilee during a horrific storm that threatened to take their lives.  Did they die?  No.  Jesus was with them.  One time, Jesus even walked across the water to be with them and keep them safe.  Ooops, there's that word again... safe.  This begs the question: which is safer? staying safe in our bubble away from the dangers that we will face with Jesus... or being in the company of an unsafe but good Jesus, following Him wherever He leads us?  Check this out:

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.  He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and your staff, the comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm 23

And this:

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident. One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavillion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock." Psalm 27:1-5

And this:

"If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things... Who shall seperate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:31b-32,35,37-39

And this from the mouth of Jesus Himself:

"Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep... I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and do destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep." John 10:7,9-11

If you want to be "safe and secure" in the American Dream, then you have that choice.  It's hard to lay aside our culture's definition of success... of safety... of wisdom even... and embrace the fullness of life that you and I were created to have.  Even now, I ask myself the question, what do I love more, my safety or my Saviour.  If you and I want to truly be safe and have a life that is abundant, then we need to lay aside our safety to be with the unsafe but good Jesus in everything that He does and calls us to do. As unsafe as it may seem, the safest place to be is in the center of the Good Shepherd's will for your life.

What is His will for your life?  Basically, it is to lay aside the weight and sin that ensnares us and trips us up, and run with endurance... run to win (I'll be writing more about this later)... and ultimately to run with Jesus.

Let's not run "safe."  Let's run with the Unsafe One.  He's the King, I tell you.