Play it safe.
Don’t push too far.
Be careful.
We can follow every safety precaution for every product we buy and in every activity we take part in, yet unforeseen, unplanned, and unexpected complications will still meet us along the way. We can’t avoid trouble altogether; it comes with the territory of life.
I’ve said it many times, and I still hold to this: the safest place to be is in God’s will. There, I find protection, provision, joy, and comfort. Nothing can reach me there except what God allows. I’m in His pocket (1 Samuel 25:29), as it were, close to His heartbeat. From that place, I hear what stirs His heart and find the courage to reach for things I never dreamed of, because things aren’t always what they seem when you’re in the will of God.
Things aren’t as they seem
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
John 14:27 ESV
Jesus was teaching His disciples to open their eyes to the possibility that things might not always be as they seemed when He said, “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” In John 14, Jesus was preparing His followers for the days ahead, when events would unfold that seemed to say, “It’s over.”
The crucifixion was on the horizon. Jesus knew it. But He also knew the Resurrection would follow in the wake of what seemed like His end. He knew things weren’t going to be as they seemed. Jesus also knew His disciples would flee and that He would be left alone to face the cross. Yet He went anyway.
Born for something more
Why would Jesus suffer and die when He knew they would all desert Him? He also knew that even after His Resurrection, they wouldn’t immediately believe He was alive. It took quite a bit of convincing before those who had fled understood that He had truly risen.
If it had been me making the choice at that juncture, those who fled probably wouldn’t have been in the running to become leaders of the early Church. Yet, by grace, Jesus looked beyond what the rest of us might call “the obvious.” He knew those who had fled weren’t at all as they appeared.
They were born for something more. They were meant to turn the world “upside down.”
“These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.”
Acts 17:6 ESV
Never Played It Safe
I see a pattern throughout Scripture: those who dared to live close to the Father’s heartbeat never played it safe. They understood that being led wherever God took them was the only truly safe place, even if that path led somewhere that made it seem their end was imminent.
Daniel chose the lions.
Paul chose to go to Rome.
Joseph chose to take Mary.
Each one of these, and many others, could have chosen an easier route, but they didn’t. They knew the worst that could happen was losing their lives, and even that would place them in the presence of God because they were already in His pocket. Where would the loss be in that?
They chose His safe place, and as they did, they lived extraordinary lives of adventure, seeing impossible dreams come true, dreams they didn’t even know they had.
Unsafe, unreasonable, and even foolish
This life and all its trimmings would have us believe that living a life of adventure with God is unsafe, unreasonable, and even foolish. For those who don’t know the Father, I can understand those feelings. Yet there’s a thirst in me for something more than a life colored safely within the lines of what appear to be safe places, because in reality, nothing is truly safe apart from God.
My choice is to live far from what seems safe. I want to live close to Him, tucked securely in His pocket, and far from living according to things as they appear to be.
“The worship of God is not a rule of safety; it’s an adventure of the spirit.”
—Alfred North Whitehead
