There is nothing safe about the path leads to safety. Following God requires courage and boldness. There are enemies on every side, both spiritual and earthly. Living as children of light angers the forces of darkness. Jesus says that before we can live, we must die to ourselves. Raising children is a wonderful blessing, but the journey is not a safe one. To tell your kids about God’s goodness and faithfulness requires courage and boldness.
The pursuit of God is not safe, but it is only way to safety.
It was not safe for the Israelites to be circumcised just before entering into battle with the Canaanites. The whole army was in pain and vulnerable to attack because they obeyed God’s command. If the Canaanites had attacked them at that moment they would have been wiped out. But Joshua trusted the command of God to be strong and courageous, even when it was not safe.
Becoming complacent, desiring to be safe, will keep you from loving your God. God does not call you to be safe, he calls you to trust him. This is where safety is found. Solomon issues a stark warning about the danger of playing it safe, being complacent:
For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
but whoever listens to me will live in safety
and be at ease, without fear of harm.”
Proverbs 1:32-33
Sir Francis Drake was not interested in being complacent. He was the first Englishman to sail around the world. While on that voyage he wrote this prayer. May we have the courage to pray it again!
“Disturb us, O Lord, when we are too pleased with ourselves, when our dreams come true because we dream too little; when we have arrived in safety because we have sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, O Lord, when with the abundance of the things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the water of life; when having fallen in love with time, we have ceased to dream of eternity, and in our efforts to build the new earth, have allowed our vision of the new heaven to grow dim. Stir us, O Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms shall show thy mastery and, when losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes and invited the brave to follow, even the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord.”
Sir Francis Drake, 1577