Dwell in safety

‘I will both lie down and sleep in peace

For you alone, O Lord

Make me dwell in safety.’ Psalm 4:8 

‘You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.’ Psalm 23

What does security feel like for you? What does it mean to be secure (physically, emotionally, interpersonally)? What does it mean to be safe?

Picture this - a girl snuggled up in a luxurious blanket, cuddled up nice and warm in this season’s faux-fur winter shrug. She looks happy, safe, secure. Comfortable. Peaceful. Enviable.  A one-second shot of her – captured on film - has permanence beyond itself: this is the smile of security, this is what every girl wants to feel…

But the make-up and the lighting and the self-absorption of those who are looking all combine so as to make us miss the reality behind the photo. We are looking at the girl, but we’re not seeing her. We have no way of knowing that just a couple of hours ago she was pelting her way through a maze of dingy night-time Paris streets, her heart pounding against her chest, threatened by the leering words and gestures of men… Terrified.

‘No one could know my heart was still slowing down from my race in the dark’. 

Jennifer Strickland writes of the real life grit and struggle that always lurked behind the photo-shopped brilliance of her Armani modelling career in her book ‘Girl Perfect’. For me that small moment– the photo radiating snug warmth, cutesy cosiness and safety in total contrast to what was actually going on in her heart and life – has a lot to say to us about what real security is made of.

Real security is not what we imagine. It doesn’t look like what the world or our imaginations would sell it to us as. When I lived in the South of France, there were more than a couple of nights when I was fool enough to walk myself home alone (I could claim circumstances conspired against me – bike theft and such-like, but really, it was foolhardiness) As any girl who’s spent any amount of time in the South of France would be able to tell you, there were plenty of men around who knew how to make girls feel unsafe. Having a panic alarm on hand didn’t do much to quell my fear; praying and forcing my brain to recite staunch hymn lyrics to myself did.

‘My name from the palms of His hands eternity will not erase;

Impressed on His heart it remains, in marks of indelible grace.

Yes I to the end will endure, as sure as the earnest is given, 

More happy but not more secure, the glorified spirits in heaven’ 

                                                                                  (August Toplady, 1771)

The security we have in God does not preclude our worst nightmares, or our imagined worst case scenarios from happening to us.

That's how secure it is.

That is the testimony of the saints across the ages – from Paul 'despairing even of life' to the early Christians who wandered around in 'sheepskins and goatskins', from Cowper, confined to a lunatic asylum, to Helen Roseveare being raped by rebels in the Congo… the abundant life with have in Jesus is experienced most strongly when it is life IN the presence of death, peace IN trouble, contentment IN hardship, safety IN persecution, soul-satisfaction IN famine, clothing IN nakedness, defense IN danger....WHILE being sawn in two.

You can never be more safe, or more secure than you are now because God loves you.

Man-made security systems are on stand-by till the moment the enemy or intruder attacks, and then they come into play. God's isn't. You are safe. Actively. Always....because you are in Christ. God’s provision of security is so comprehensive that it survives the worst apparent ‘ intrusions’ redeeming them, turning them for good. 

You could never be more safe.

You could never be more loved.

In the words of John Chrysostom (c.347 - 407) to the Empress Eudoxia:

“You cannot banish me, for this world is my Father’s house.”

“But I will kill you,” said the empress.
“No, you cannot, for my life is hid with Christ in God,” said John.
“I will take away your treasures.”
“No, you cannot, for my treasure is in heaven and my heart is there.”
“But I will drive you away from your friends and you will have no one left.”
“No, you cannot, for I have a Friend in heaven from whom you cannot separate me.
I defy you, for there is nothing you can do to harm me.”

'The Lord will keep you from all harm, he will watch over your life.' 
                                                                                                       Psalm 121:7