We talk about security a lot.
How we've been lulled into carnal security.
Thought
We talk a lot about security in our culture; job security, home security, financial security and national security to name just four. The reason for this I suspect is because we each know the unsettling truth that life is insecure; death being the ultimate insecurity.
It doesn’t matter how good our job is, how high-tech our home security system is, how big our retirement fund is, or how big our military is, we are all going to die, no exceptions. And between birth and death there is much to also feel unsettled by.
Meditating on the reality of death is unsettling, but our unwillingness to address and accept death does not make him any less our silent traveling companion, who sits there quietly watching as we go throughout our days.
Instead we try to push away such thoughts by constantly speaking about security. We were warned about this temptation in The Book of Mormon; how in the last days satan will “lull [us] away into carnal security”.
I am not suggesting we don’t take steps to ensure the duration of our lives go as well as they can, but how many a man has spent hours laboring and planning for his retirement but failed to find the only real source of security; Jesus Christ.
How many a woman has spent countless hours creating a secure home but neglected to come unto Jesus Christ, the only true source of security.
Our leaders speak constantly of national security but when did we last here one talk about Jesus Christ being our solution.
Perhaps, we have been lulled into carnal security by unwittingly believing that we can, of our own talent and effort, solve all our problems. But there are two obvious problems that I believe we all instinctively know we cannot solve on our own.
The first is death. The other is the painful spiritual wounds and brokenness we experience during our lives, whether inflicted by others or ourselves.
The solution, of course, is not more carnal security. A safer home, better cameras, louder alarms won’t heal the wounds of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. A better, high paying job with a great benefits package won’t heal a soul wounded by immorality, addiction or self-harm. A robust retirement plan won’t heal broken hearts, injured minds, or suffering souls.
The only source of true security I see is Jesus Christ. Wholehearted devotion to Him will bring needed healing. Living within our covenants with Christ will bring the sense of security our soul longs to find. Let us therefore come unto Christ and find true security in Him.
Quote.
What good man regards any misfortune as no concern of his?.
- Roman. Juvenal xv. 140 (C.S. Lewis -The Abolition of Man, p.83)
Idea.
Christmas is the great season of giving. The best gifts are the one’s that only we can give; our time, our love, our gratitude, our forgiveness.