Safe Space – a Misguided Quest

The pursuit of an environment protected from harm may be primal, but it’s miscomprehended and misdirected.

A few months ago, I read this quote from C. S. Lewis:

“The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and pose as an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bathe or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.” [The Problem of Pain]

Lewis’ assertion initially caused me to wonder if our culture’s apparent fixation with safety or making life safe might be a form of idolatry. Obviously, to the degree it (or anything else) claims allegiance which solely belongs to God it is idolatry. As I’ve pondered that possibility a bit more, I now think this frequent preoccupation with ‘making the world safe’ is more an indicator of the human heart’s innate longing for both what was lost in Genesis 3 (Eden) and what is yet to come when Jesus returns (new heaven and new earth).

Genesis 2 ends with an idyllic scene of wholeness, happiness and tranquility. By all our modern standards and desires, Eden is a safe place. Humankind is portrayed at peace with God, each other and the universe. It is the life for which we were created to enjoy. Sadly, that was shattered by disobedience and shuttered by expulsion. Nonetheless this innate longing for the shalom of the garden pulses within the essential being of every human heart.

So, this passion for the pursuit of an environment protected from all harm has primal prompting. It is, however, frequently and to a large degree miscomprehended and misdirected. As noted above, until Jesus returns, our world will remain to one degree or another broken. It will not be safe, though it can often be safer.

Far too often many of these modern fear-driven quests for safety are not substantively rooted in either fact or reason.

Indeed, I believe that love for one’s neighbour will often motivate followers of Jesus to initiate and support actions that intentionally seek to reduce potential harm: whether in the environment, in social structures, in legal decisions or in community priorities. In so doing, we may not appear to be acting any differently than those who are consumed by the near worship of safety that is so widespread in society [e.g. CCTV everywhere (homes, car dashboards, street corners), helicopter-parents, convoluted child car seat codes]. Yet our radically different motivation for these initiatives is a game changer!

We read in 2 Timothy: “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and self-control” (1:7). As well as this primeval longing for the shalom of Eden, so many initiatives in society around safety are driven by fear: fear of loss, of pain, of neighbour, of the unknown, of tragedy, of death. In the presence of real danger, fear can be a helpful response. Unfortunately, such rationally based fear is rarely the driver for modern society’s quest for safety. Far too often many of these modern fear-driven quests for safety are not substantively rooted in either fact or reason.

In addition, irrational fear is almost 100-per-cent life-denying in its effects. It cannot co-exist with the love God desires and provides. They are polar opposites. Love seeks the best for the other. Fear desires to preserve self first and foremost. Fear depletes hope and drains energy. Love replenishes and renews strength, expands horizons and allows for surprises and unexpected possibilities.

In my experience, most fear-driven efforts have little staying power [the adrenalin rush it stirs rapidly dissipates]; while initiatives arising from God-sourced love find fresh power daily from the storehouse of divine provision. I also find it intriguing that in addition to this kind of staying power, self-control is set alongside love in verse 7. Almost any initiative leading to lasting change to make life safer, either for one’s neighbour or the world as a whole, needs the cushioning provisions of self-control.

Ask the Spirit to sift your heart and mind to reveal any seeds of fear which may have supplanted love as the main motivator in your being that shapes how you engage life.

Don’t you find, even among the seemingly best-intentioned promoters of safety, there is a tendency to embrace rigid ideology? Most of these ‘safe’ proponents have an inability to dialogue, little appetite for discussion? It’s sadly too often, ‘My way or the highway!’?  Not so with the one motivated by love. Self-control allows others to be heard not dismissed, to be given respect not maligned, to be patient with due process not frantic for fast fixes.

There are two takeaways. Both are offered as possible correctives to a worldview that may have become somewhat misshapen by the onslaught of blatant falsehoods and subtle deceptions that constantly crash into our lives in these perilous times.

The first challenge is to ask the Spirit to sift your heart and mind to reveal any seeds [or full blooming plants] of fear [or lust, or doubt, or anxiety, or . . . ] which may have supplanted love as the main motivator in your being that shapes how you engage life. I can assure you; it might be a bit scary or even very sad at how broadly and how deeply these non-faithful influencers have taken over our perspectives. We live in a broken world that doesn’t just threaten well-being and health, but bombards us incessantly with duplicity, corrupt thinking and partial truths. So constant inner vigilance is required.

As well as seeking the Spirit’s support to sift out the impurities, attend to regular scriptural reading and reflection and find a trustworthy mentor or two or a spiritual director to help you delve into your innermost being and uncover destructive influences that may be lurking there.

The second challenge takes us back to Lewis’ assertion; what I describe as a broken world. In the gospel of John’s lengthy presentation of Jesus’ final ‘sit down’ with his disciples [chapters 15-17] Jesus goes to great lengths to make it clear that until he returns, following him will be a hard road to travel.

When I used C. Congram’s Board of Congregational Life course on spiritual gifts (Made for a Purpose) in my pastoral charges [that’s just to reveal how long in the teeth I am (I’m not to the one tooth age yet!)], I always made the disclaimer that I didn’t have the gift of martyrdom! So, I’m very much in sync with society’s passionate longing for a pleasant, dare I say, safe life. Yet, seeking such a petal-strewn path is not our call. As Lewis points out, our loving, gracious, powerful God often pours many times of tranquility and other blessings into our lives. They are gifts, harbingers of what awaits.

We follow a cross bearer. Let’s not get seduced into seeking a path in this life that is safe.  That is not our call. We can, in love, as opportunities arise and abilities permit, seek to make the way safer. We also thankfully rejoice in all times, both ones hard and those less difficult, that the new heaven and the new earth is our promised inheritance, our designed destiny. That’s not pie in the sky, but spiritual sustenance for the journey. Let’s travel circumspectly, faithfully, energetically, passionately and collegially. As well, let us be fully alert to any influences that invite us to take a detour, no matter how safe it may seem!

Photo Credit:  Nick Fewings via Unsplash