What keeps us from leaving everything? What keeps us from reckless abandonment? I think that a large part of what holds us back is fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the loss of ____ (time, stuff, friendships, etc.). Fear of putting yourself in physical harm. Fear.
I recently read a blog by someone who lives and works in Haiti. This is a great blog and his thoughts would apply to almost anywhere where people are serving the Lord. You can read this blog here!
I heard the question asked of me when I left the states for two weeks. For two weeks... "Is it safe?" I even asked myself.
But this question is something I rarely ask when I walk outside with my kids. When I go to the store. When I drive to my church building to Worship. I rarely ask, "Is it safe?" But what's scary to me is that today I realized it isn't.
It isn't safe here. Any sense of security I have is false security. It's not safe here.
We can be in danger of forgetting that the God who created the Heavens has made a sacrifice so that I can approach Him daily. I hear this all the time, and become numb. I rarely stop to stare at the sky. To stare at the work of His fingertips. To grasp that HE, who created everything, would have anything to do with me.
It's almost as if I've been out on the ocean so long that the sound of the waves and the rocking of the boat has become "normal". I forgot what silence sounded like. If I'm not careful, I can forget the first time I heard the "ocean"! I can forget that I don't deserve to be saved from myself. I can forget that I NEED HIM!
It's dangerous here. It's dangerous for me to live like I deserve this. Like it's normal for the GOD OF THE UNIVERSE to come so far, from a throne room, to dirty feet, to death on a cross to take MY place. To forgive sin that He had NOTHING to do with. To forgive me when I haven't even stepped out of my sin to seek Him.
It's dangerous to raise your kids here too. It terrifies me that I could teach them that the Bible is just normal. That the God who created the Heavens, who knows them intimately, is to be seen as "normal".
So as safe as I felt in my bed last night, I pray that my security is in Him. I pray that He would find me clinging to Him.
We, too, live in a dangerous place.
