The ancient log cabin had clearly been uninhabited for many years.  I have visited this abandoned home several times in the past and each time the windows and doors were boarded up.  But not this day, today the doors were flung wide open and a damp odor creeps out of the open wound.  The fading sunlight scarcely penetrates the soggy darkness.  When I stick my head into the small room my eyes are drawn to the dingy orange curtains that hang over the small windows.  They appear to be thin as a spider’s web and much more fragile.

        A couple more steps and I enter the main living area of the dwelling.  A stone fire place filled with the remnants of some long ago fire greet me.  The paper which cover the walls no doubt made some 1960s family feels right at home.  But today it seems eerily out of place.  When the uneven floor begins to crack and groan a shiver runs up my spine.  As I turn to leave I spot this lock.  As I ponder this simple device I wonder if it brought them a feeling of security.  Did they feel safe when they slid the bolt into its locked position?  Did it put their minds at ease when they engaged their state of the art security system?

        Helen Keller once said, “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.  Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.  Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”  Certainly we spend a tremendous amount of money and effort trying to stay safe every year.  We have homeland security, security guards, social security and so many locks we can’t remember all our combinations and passwords.  Do we feel safer or just more isolated?

        In spite of all our efforts are we any safer today than when this lock was used?  Perhaps absolute security is only a myth.  There is no security on earth, only opportunities.  Let us search for ways to help others feel secure because when we secure the good of others we will find we have already secured our own.  Let us promote an atmosphere where it is safe for family and friends to be themselves and know they will always be loved.  Let’s slide the bold of acceptance and forgiveness in place and proclaim it is now safe; come just as you are and find safety.  Happiness is a choice; choose to love unconditionally.

Something to think about:

• The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear. It is the storm within which endangers him, not the storm without.

• Fear is the father of courage and the mother of safety.

• God will take care of what you go through; you take care of how you go through it.

• Protect me, my Lord, my boat is so small, and your ocean so big.

• A ship in the harbor is safe; but that is not what ships are built for.

• We are slaves to our gadgets, puppets of our power, and prisoners of our security. The theme of our generation is: “Get more, know more, and do more,” instead of “Pray more, be more, and serve more.”

• Our lives are never more secure than when they are abandoned to God.

• A closed mind is like a locked, shuttered house—it is secure and quiet, but also dark and gloomy.

Thankful for the security a true friend offers
Rickey Moore