Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be in a safe place, where I wasn’t likely to get harmed. Not that I was able to avoid all danger, but I wanted to minimize the danger to myself and my loved ones. Who wants to get hurt? Not me!
There was a time when the safest place to be was in a mother’s womb. Pregnant women and their unborn babies were protected like the treasures they are. Now in the U.S. it is a women’s choice whether or not her baby will live. In 2014, over 600,000 mothers decided their babies would die. For those babies, the womb was not a safe place.
Education is an important step in preparing our children for life. Public schools have always had their challenges, but they were generally a safe place to send your child. Then God was kicked out of the classroom, along with the love He taught. With no absolutes, children aren’t taught to love one another, but to lookout for themselves. Recent tragedies show that students learned their lessons and only kill those who mistreat them. School is not a safe place.
Work has always been a place to interact with people. Most workers want to do a good job, be promoted, and get along with their co-workers. Working closely can bring out the best or worst in people. Feelings of jealousy, anger and frustration can explode into violence. People’s futures are tied to their jobs, so anything that threatens that can push them over the edge. Workplace shootings have become all too common. The workplace may not be a safe place.
When I bought a home, I avoided the “bad” side of town. I paid a higher price to stay away from trouble. I didn’t want burglar bars on my windows or to worry if my family would be safe. I enjoyed my safe place until my neighbor was killed in his own home. Trouble came to my safe neighborhood in a stolen car. The addict was so high on drugs he couldn’t even find his way out of our circle after shooting my neighbor. Believing he was dying from his wounds, the killer had to stop and ask for help. My neighborhood isn’t the safe place I thought it was.
In times past the Church was a safe place. Respect for the house of GOD was ingrained in our society and was considered a place of refuge. After years of mockery in popular culture and attacks from anti-religious groups, the Church is portrayed as the problem, instead of the solution. Hate-filled people attack the Church and all it stands for. The Church became an easy target for crazed killers, who want to lash out. The Church is no longer a safe place.
So where do you find a safe place? In the loving arms of JESUS! “I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust… A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee” (Psa 91:2 and 7 KJV). More than that, you don’t have to fear death because “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 KJV). Accept JESUS and you will be in a safe place for all eternity.
Wayne Lance (2018)