Say Goodbye to Your Safe Places

I have a friend who just lost her job. I am watching her to see what she will do next. I am reminded of the times I have lost something or someone I love. I faced a choice. I could go back to my safe places, or I could see I had an opportunity to move forward with the Lord. I wish I could say I automatically moved forward. Often, I did not. I craved the comfort of the familiar, so I returned to my safe places. What I knew. Whom I knew. What I had already experienced. The places I had already been. The relationships I had already had. Safe. As I watch my friend to see what she will do, I cannot help but reflect on the choice I face now. I, too, am in transition. I, too, face the inevitable choice. Will I go back to my safe places, or will I carry on with the Lord?

It takes strength, and endurance, and focus, and patience, and wisdom and discernment, and so much more, to hear the voice of the Lord and to follow. It takes weakness, and fear, and hurt, and a variety of troubles to go back to my safe places. The irony is that what I perceive to be my safe places are not really safe at all. The old, the familiar, the comfortable, these truly are illusions of that for which I am hungry. Oh, how I long to find a resting place – particularly when I lose someone or something I love, or something or someone at the very least that has given me a sense of security. But alas, the rest is an illusion also. So is the security.

There is only one true resting place There is only one true place of security. There is only one true source of safety. Jesus. So I am deceived when I believe going backward will help me garner what I desire. I am wise when I realize Jesus has asked me to follow Him. And Jesus does not walk backwards. He walks forward. He does not want to drag me into the past. He wants to lead me forward.

So here lies my choice. Will I look past the mirage of safety I see in my past to realize my hope lies in Christ? Or will I go running to the place I have spent so much of my life – the past?

I will not only continue to watch my friend, but I must watch myself. I must watch that I make the right decisions. It is a scary place to be when I do not know where I am going, when I face the unfamiliar, when I face new places, new faces, and new relationships. But the Lord will give me everything I need to walk forward if I choose to follow Him.

Today, I choose to remember Jesus is my safety. I will not turn back. I will go forward. But I shall not go alone. I shall walk with my Lord. And there is no safer place to be. In Christ.


Psa 4:8  “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.”

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