We live in an insecure world. Lebanon, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq – the number of ‘global hotspots’ seems to multiply each year. Our political leaders tell us the ‘war on terror’ will be a grinding - perhaps decades long struggle – with real advances being thwarted from time to time by real setbacks.
In this context it is little wonder that people are looking for a sense of security in many different places. It stuns me that Australia’s most popular television show is Border Security - a voyeuristic view of our immigration and custom controls. Do we really feel safer if we see someone caught smuggling parrots out of the country?
Our obsession with our homes, renovations, buying ever more expensive consumer goods is an attempt to ‘cocoon’ ourselves from a more dangerous world. If we can’t control the world, we can at least control our small part of it. Can’t we?
In such a dangerous world it is tempting for us to create a safe and secure God. But that is idolatry. God is many things – but he is not safe, if safe means undemanding or ‘nice’. That is not the God revealed in Scripture.
In calling us to follow him, Jesus requires us to leave all our securities behind and to walk the invigorating path of discipleship. Life lived on this path will be dangerous. It will not leave us or those around us unchanged. We will discover, in the words of Shane Claiborne, that the ‘more (we) get to know Jesus, the more trouble he seems to get (us) into.’
Trouble it may be – but trouble that changes the world, one revolutionary step of love at a time.
Feeling safer after seeing someone being caught smuggling parrots out of the country? Heh, heh... that was a very good point!
My life hasn't been very secure, and sometimes the rug gets pulled out from under me, but my faith in God and that he will provide keeps me going, it is the one thing we can count on in this dangerous world.
Blessings!
Posted by: leeann | August 11, 2006 at 07:24 PM
Calling over to say how very much I enjoyed the sermon on Sunday and how connected I felt with what you were saying, best wishes, Winsome
Posted by: The Artist | August 15, 2006 at 02:30 PM