Finding Security
By: Kristen L. McNulty
Reprint rights available on request. Email the author at kristenmcnulty@hotmail.com.
It was just before 2:30 in the morning. I was fortunately still awake and was near a window in my basement when I could hear the rocks in my driveway crunching as someone made their way down the driveway. I paused, listening, hoping these footsteps would continue away from the house, only to have my worst fears realized. This wasn't someone taking a shortcut through the yard or even trying to see if my car door was unlocked so they could swipe my spare change. No, this person was trying to breach the door to get into the house. Not really thinking I bolted upstairs and flipped on one light switch after another in an attempt to scare them off, while praying for protection. It worked and by the time the police came, the person was gone.
After talking with other people about this incident, I found out what I experienced wasn't an isolated event. Our city is facing a serious problem with crime lately with a rash of break ins and vandalism, even some violent crimes.
When I asked what I could do to try and stay safe I was advised to either get a dog or a security system. I started investigating the security system option and right away was flooded with the promises of what a security system would bring. Words like peace of mind were repeated and when I started thinking about it, I realized even the name of the system carries a promise. They don't, after all, call it a motion detection system or an intruder alert system. No they use the word security and I can see why they do it. For those who have had their homes threatened by crime, the promise of being secure sounds pretty good. But the problem is, true security isn't theirs to give.
When you look up the word security, the dictionary defines it as:
Security: quality or state of being secure: such as freedom from danger, freedom from fear or anxiety or freedom from the prospect of being laid off.
While an alarm system can alert me if my house is being broken into, it cannot stop the break in from happening in the first place or give me any kind of protection after someone crosses the threshold into my home. All it can do is ensure the police will eventually get there. It does not provide me with freedom from danger or fear or anxiety. Trust me, if someone is coming at me in my home, I'm not going to find comfort in the fact the police will be there in a few minutes once all is over and done. I realized through this that while a system can alert me to a problem, true security is something a company cannot give me.
If the last few months with COVID have taught us anything, it's that no matter what we do, nothing in our lives is truly secure. Jobs can be lost with no warning. Society can be shut down when we least expect it. Our investments can crash over something we didn't see coming. Or our homes can be broken into. So if we base how secure we feel on any of these things that are not stable in the least, it's going to leave us coming up empty time and time again.
But there is a place where we can find true security. The kind of security found in the dictionary definition of the word. The kind of security that leaves us in a "state of being secure" and brings "freedom from fear and anxiety". And that place is in the person of Jesus. As a follower of Jesus, we know that no matter what happens to us, whether we lose our job or are the victim of a crime or we go broke, we will still be okay. And that's largely because of two promises we have been given.
Promise 1: nothing that happens to us on this earth can displace us in His kingdom.
We can falsely lose our reputation, we can lose our homes, we can even lose our lives, but as believers we can feel secure no matter what happens because we know nothing we face on this earth has the potential to displace us from our Father's hands.
"Jesus said: 'My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father's hand. The Father and I are one.'" John 10:27-30
Nothing can take us away from our Father's hands. Nothing. Our place in the afterlife has been secured and our relationship with our God has been locked in and that is unchanging.
Promise 2: no matter what happens in our lives, we never go through it alone.
As one of my favourite psalms tells us:
"I look up to the mountains- does my help come from there? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth! He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps. The LORD himself watches over you! The LORD stands beside you as your protective shade." Psalm 121:1-6
Then jumping to verse 8:
"The LORD keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever." Psalm 121:8
And He doesn't passively watch us go through what we go through. Or act like an alarm system to say a problem is happening, but do nothing to help us out in the moment. No, when we face trouble, He helps us through it every step of the way.
Where there is cause for fear, He gives us His peace. Where there is pain to bear, He lends us His strength. Where there are tears to shed, He sends us His comfort. And where there is rejection at hand, He floods us with His love.
Nothing we go through on this earth, not even death itself, can separate us from Him (Romans 8) and if that isn't security, I don't know what is.
Jesus gives us the kind of security that money can't buy. Even if we hired a team of security guards to stand watch 24/7, they couldn't stop us from getting sick or from a loved one from dying or from a marriage breaking up. They couldn't provide us with life on the other side of death. And they surely couldn't provide us with the kind of peace, joy, strength, comfort and love that He gives help us to not only get through hard times, but thrive in and through them.
So leave your system up, but never forget where your true security comes from. Not from a camera or alarm or motion detector, but from the God of heaven and earth who created you, loves you and sent His Son to die for you. What a privilege it is to be secure in His hands.
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