Are you "Super Safe"?

“Why does the government think that if the people obey the laws of the Bible, they won’t obey the laws of the government?”

This is the exact question Kathryn asked me as we read a great book called I Love My Bible, by Debbie Anderson. (By the way, I think she is the best author of young children’s Christian books that I have come across. Substantial, accurate, well-illustrated, meaty stuff!) Anyhow, in the book it talks about parts of the world where people have to hide their Bibles, or may get in trouble for talking about their faith. We’ve read this book before, but it sunk in a little more this time. She was trying to understand what I told her about why some governments don’t like people to read the Bible.

“Well, Kathryn, that’s a very important question, and mommy needs a little time to think about it.” (Translation—mommy doesn’t know what I should say and what I shouldn’t say!)

Later that afternoon when I was cooking dinner she brought it up again.

“Mommy, have you thought about it? You’ve had a lot of time to think about it, and you should know now.” Conveniently, her father had just walked through the door, and I sent her to him. (After all, his degree says Master of Theology!)

After this conversation, putting two and two together, she was starting to feel concerned about her safety. I have always aired on the side of truth rather than soft answers when it comes to answering hard questions from Kathryn. I don’t ever want her to tell me, “Mommy, you said God wouldn’t let this happen to us.” Yet, when you’re speaking to a 4 year old, there is a fine line between speaking truthfully and evoking fear…

“But Mommy, how do we know we are safe? Do you think it would be safer if we lived somewhere else?”

“Kathryn, what do you think makes us safe? It’s not that we live it a place that is free from danger, and its not that God promises nothing hard will happen to us. We are safe because we know that whatever hard things might happen to us, God will take care of us. That’s why we’re super safe!”

Sounds easy to say, doesn’t it? Do I believe this? I do, and I want to… It’s not that I don’t believe God will care for us. It’s just that I wish I could define what His care looks like in our lives. "I believe. Help me in my unbelief."

Having lived a good bit of time overseas, I feel that we as American Christians carry around a weight of cultural baggage when it comes to safety concerns. It’s not that it’s bad to desire safety. In fact, I think it is a stamp of God on our hearts to long for a place which is utterly free from fear. It’s just that our culture can tend to have an unhealthy obsession with pursuing it in many ways. I’m not talking about taking stupid risks. I’m talking about living lives full of trust in His goodness, free from anxiety and willingness to step out in bold faith! It seems to me that Christians in persecuted parts of the world don’t primarily ask God to grant them a safe home. They ask God to bring them safely Home. And if that is my hope, then I am “super safe!”

That’s a perspective I pray my kids will grow in, and me too!