Safety First?

(continued thoughts from previous article entitled "Heart-lag")

Just like there are things one can do while traveling to minimize the symptoms of jet-lag, there are also steps one can take in life that significantly reduce the effects of heart-lag. All you need to do is keep one word at the center of your mind: safety.

People who are safety-conscious tend to do a risk analysis, albeit subconscious at times, before involving themselves in any given activity. They constantly consider what the potential cost may be to them and if that cost will result in a positive or negative impact on all those involved. Therefore, it stands to reason that if we keep safety at the center of our minds and hearts during times of service and ministry, we’ll probably be less likely to involve ourselves with people in such a way that would lead to pain or sadness in parting afterwards.

Think about it. It really could be done, right? We could still minister to people, seeking to touch their lives, but do so from an arm’s length away. We could keep our minds focused on plans and goals, seeking to carry out our mission successfully, but make sure we do so with as little emotional liability as possible. This would indeed be safer.

We could still relate to people, but make sure those relationships are based on and centered on our terms. We’d have a biblically-based agenda, and we’d do our best to carry it out to completion. If I’m to preach, I preach and do the best I can, and leave it at that. If I’m to serve, I serve to the best of my abilities, and end it there. If I’m to counsel or advise, I collect whatever information is necessary for me to understand the situation, then respond biblically based upon what I heard. Done. In all these cases, the goals could be reached – safely reached.This is safety-centered ministry. It’s seeking to serve God and others from a safe distance so as not to grow close to people too fast, too soon, or too deeply. We safely conceal ourselves behind the Bible, our teachings, our plans and our purposes, and bring people closer to these things instead of closer to ourselves.

So…what do you think? Ready to sign up?

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Before you decide, let’s consider something from the Word of God. John 15:12 tells us that we’re to love people as Christ loved people. This means I’m to typify the love Christ has for people in the way I love others. If I look at how Jesus loved and seek to emulate that, I’m in good shape. Of course I’ll never do as well as He did, but I’ll at least be on the right track.

Question…

…did Jesus love “safely?” Think about it. If you look at the many ways Jesus expressed His love for people, did He do so in a safe manner?

Was “safety” on Jesus’ mind when He touched lepers with His very own healing hand?

Was “safety” on Jesus’ mind when He blew people away with His preaching in the Sermon on the Mount?

Was “safety” a concern of Jesus’ when He dared to speak to a Samaritan woman?

Most importantly, how much did Jesus regard “safety” when it came to the cross? Jesus knew His back would be marred beyond recognition long before the whip met his flesh, and He knew exactly what He’d feel as his back rubbed up against the bark of a tree. He knew all of this long before it happened. He knew just where the nails would enter His palms and feet. He knew the exact nerve-endings that would react to the thorns piercing His brow.

How could One do such good deeds in life, and pay such a price in death, if safety were of utmost importance to Him? He couldn’t! He wouldn’t! Praise God that we don’t have a safety-conscious Savior! Instead of reading of His hesitation in dying for sinners, we read of the joy that filled His heart to endure such a penalty on our behalf (Hebrews 12:2).

Perhaps this is why immediately following Christ’s command for us to love like He loved is His reminder to us that there is no greater love than for one to lay down his life for another (John 15:13). What could be more opposed to safety than death? And Christ tells us that this very thing - for one to lay down his life for another - this most unsafe thing is the epitome of love between two persons.

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I believe heart-lag is indicative that one has not loved “safely,” but has loved vulnerably. It shows that one did not consider firstly the cost of pouring themselves into relationships, but instead saw what could be bought for that price. It shows that relationships—even Gospel-centered relationships—although messy at times, are definitely a mess worth making. It’s not only a mess worth making, but a mess worth wallowing in for the glory of God.

May the Word of God and the example set for us by our Savior cause us to rethink the phrase “safety first” when it comes to ministry and relationships for the sake of the Gospel.

Much love,

~ Peter

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable."

~ C.S. Lewis

"Heart-lag"

I just returned from a 10-day mission trip to Albania. I had never traveled more than three time zones away from home, so I never really had the opportunity to experience true “jet-lag.” I know there are a variety of jet-lag experiences that vary from person to person, so going into the trip I was rather curious as to what mine would be like.Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m pretty flexible when it comes to bedtimes. It’s not unlike me to go to bed around midnight one night, 2 AM the next, 11:30 PM the following night, and then pull an all-nighter to get something done that I had fallen behind on (usually a sermon). Although it is arguably not the best lifestyle I could be living, I think it contributed to my overall smooth experience in adjusting to the different time zones I traveled through during this trip. So far, my experience with jet-lag has been somewhere between slim and none. That’s pretty cool.

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What I am suffering from is “heart-lag.” Jet-lag has to do with certain bodily and lifestyle rhythms being thrown off kilter. What I’m calling “heart-lag” has to do with emotional rhythms becoming temporarily unstable while one adjust to their reentry into everyday, normal life. Jet-lag is caused by traversing a long distance in a short period of time. Heart-lag is caused by growing incredibly close to people in a relatively short period of time. It happens when one’s heart must leave a location physically before it is ready to do so emotionally.Symptoms? There are several. My attention span tends to hit a temporary low during heart-lag. At any given time there can be a face, a voice, a story, a line, even a smell that silences me and takes me down a mental and emotional rabbit trail that is hard to find my way out of at times.Emotional fatigue is another symptom I experience. I feel as if I’m riding a mood swing set as I go back and forth from happy to sad, from excited to discouraged, from laughing to holding back tears. It’s exhausting.I’ve also found myself to be irritable at times. I think it’s more internal for me so I don’t think I really show it, but you’d be better off asking Sarah. It’s weird.It’s something that affects not only the traveler, but those closest to him as well. I laugh and wrestle with the boys on the living room floor when I suddenly think of someone or something. I hold my love close as we fall asleep at night, but she falls asleep long before I do as I find myself mentally watching an endless movie reel of faces, situations, stories, and memories. Sleep isn’t restful, but just an intermission. I usually lay awake when I rise the next morning, watching the movie from where I last left off.

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I think heart-lag is something that is fairly unique to Christians. I’ve never heard of someone returning after a business trip and struggling with dueling emotions, some of which are glad to be home with family and friends, others of which are pining for colleagues halfway around the globe. Christians have the unique ability to grow closer to one another in a short period of time than non-Christians do because we have the most important things in life in common. We’ve both been recipients of unmerited favor by the grace of God. We’re both poor beggars who don’t know not one another, but know where and how to be filled by He who called Himself the “Bread of Life” (cf. John 6:35). Am I really meeting a stranger for the first time, or am I being introduced to a sibling I never knew I had?Just like there are things one can do while traveling to minimize the symptoms of jet-lag, there are also steps one can take in life that significantly reduce the effects of heart-lag. Lord-willing, I’ll write about these in my next posting. They probably would work and make for easier reentry into everyday life, but there’s a cost involved that causes me to think it not really worth it. In this case, I think the safer road can be one of the more dangerous ones to traverse. I know that may not make much sense at first glance, so I look forward to sharing a bit more in detail at a later time.

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“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.”

John 15:9-17

Much love,

~ Peter