Dangerous Safety

 37“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38“And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me." Matthew 10:37-38 "There will be no cowards in heaven." Francis Chan

I'm not really sure if those already in heaven can look upon what is happening in this world. The Bible does speak of a great crowd of witnesses beholding us, but that may be directed more towards what will be happening in the very last days. In any case, if those who have gone before us, particularly those who lived out their witness at great danger and risk to themselves and their loved ones, do they wonder at how we in the western church so value our safety and comfort? I think we're particularly obsessed about our safety. Many of us fear to venture out to the grocery store without asking Him for "traveling mercies." We feel the Lord must be committed to keeping us safe, and that He would not only keep us from danger but refrain from ever allowing us to be placed in the midst of it. This is pretty astounding when the testimony of Scripture, of the church through the ages, and of millions of brothers and sisters in areas outside of the west is just the opposite. Not only are many of them living at great risk to their personal and familial safety, but they are living in places that the Lord has sent them. He has placed them in the path of danger. This conflicts with much, if not most of western theology.

I had a wonderful professor at the Bible College I attended. He and his wife answered God's call on their lives to become missionaries to several locations in Africa. In their decades on the field, they buried two of their children. Children that almost certainly would not have been lost had they never left America. When I heard him speak of it, I heard his voice of pain and loss that was overlaid with his total trust in and love of His God. They had followed Christ out of the relative safety of this land to be exposed to a very unsafe area in comparison, especially as concerns health. He often spoke of how he hoped that the Lord would one day allow him to write a book on suffering, but as he said that I remembered how his face would glow with the joy and presence of His Lord. In truth, that man and his precious wife who had lost so much, gave forth a witness of what it is to live in the joy of the Lord. I had never seen, still have not seen, anyone else who shined with such joy as they. In fact, they had left the mission field because the wife had contracted cancer, and after a long battle with it, the Lord called her home. I was at the memorial celebration, where that same man, mourning the loss of his wife, still shone with His glory on His face. They both knew what it was to live their lives, to serve Him, in the fullness of His joy and life. In the midst of anything and everything.

I remember watching a western movie centered on pioneers heading to the west. As they neared their promised land, the leader remarked something on the order of that there were no cowards among them. The cowards had long ago given up and turned back. This reminds me of the great chapter on the biblical heroes of faith spoken of in Hebrews 11. Of Moses the writer says, "He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of the Messiah than to own the treasures of Egypt.....Moses kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the One who is invisible." Such is the call for we who are called to be the modern pioneers and heroes of the faith. He doesn't promise us our version of safety. He does promise His, a dangerous safety. There will be risk, sometimes very great. There will be danger, oftentimes intense. Many will turn back at that. Back to the fading treasures of Egypt, and the safety they believe that is there. Some, His pioneer heroes, will press on, facing the dangers, hardships, and snares, keeping their eyes upon the One who goes before them. I want to be found among them. Do you? Will you be? Or do we turn back?

Blessings,

Pastor O