Can we ever feel safe again?

With the death total in London over fifty this morning, I shudder at the idea of finding a safe place to live. People will think twice before boarding a bus, riding BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), or entering a subway for the next few months because once again we feel strangely vulnerable.

With the daily grisly reports of suicide bombings in Iraq it is easy to become anesthesized to the
frightening propsect of not knowing what threat lurks in the shadows for American soldiers and Iraqui citizens. Because we have servicemen there who we know personally, we can't forget the ubiquitous danger they face. I read the list of men killed in service each time it is printed looking reluctantly for the name of someone I might have known.

And it is not that long ago that we were scrambling in the aftermath of 9-11 (say that, and everyone knows what you are talking about) to find our own safe places--disdaining air travel, and, then, when we finally rediscovered our penchant for travel, struggling through checkpoints with shoes in hand and luggage opened...something that we now accept as routine.

Solomon writes in Proverbs 18:10, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe." Such words at first glance seem trite to the skeptic, and absurd to the cynic. For me, these words are comfort, though, I confess, I never stood in the debris of the Twin Towers and I have never been a military policeman, like my friend Mike, in Iraq.

But I have sat with a mother whose son was dying with an incurable disease. I have watched an elderly man release his cancer-ridden wife to eternity. I am working with a young man who has five children and is battling multiple myaloma. I recently helped a mother of teens enter a rehabiliation center for addiction that was threatening her life.

Alll of those things are scary. They are places we all may visit sooner or later that are unfamiliar, and surely make us feel unsafe. Part of our fear is that of the unknown and its corollary anticipations that render us powerless and vulnerable.

I have discovered that my faith in God, while not erasing my proclivity for fear of the unknown, provides me with a steady confidence and certainty that whatever comes my way, God will give me the grace to get through it. I also have what some critically may deride as a benign peace that comes from affirming that God has a plan for my life, that my days are numbered, that He will be faithful to the promises of His Word to me.

I run to the tower of strength I find in His name. And, for the moment, I feel safe.