Thoughts on Safety

I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.  ~ Psalm 4: 8

I painted this verse on my children’s bedroom door when they were young.  Their safety was and continues to be a prayerful priority for me.  Safety is a theme in every aspect of my life—for my children, those employees whom I oversee and lead, my personal safety.  And safety is a larger theme taking up much bandwidth in every discipline:  employee occupational safety, road safety, school safety, ensuring preventable diseases are indeed prevented through education and relevant prophylaxis, the use of appropriate personal protective gear in dangerous work environments, the development of policies and adoption of physical structural changes to ensure public safety, the consistent adoption of evidence based medical practices and avoidance of preventable harm events. 

Don’t text and drive.  Call the suicide hotline.  Don’t drink and drive.  Wear your seatbelt.  Use a condom. Get vaccinated.  Wear a helmet.  Wash your hands.  Wear mosquito repellant.  Wear sunscreen.  Only point the gun at something you intend to kill; lock your guns away from the children.  Make smoking illegal. Make vaping illegal.  Make guns illegal.  Just say no to drugs.  Take your prescriptions per the doctor’s orders.  Don’t drink from a garden hose.  Cook your meat thoroughly.  Paint the curbs yellow.  Put rumble strips on the side of the road.  Mind the gap. Don’t jaywalk.  Don’t hitchhike.  Get a mammogram.  Get a colonoscopy.  Don’t let your kids play football.  Don’t eat meat.  Only eat organic food.  Don’t put your finger in outlets.  Don’t play outside when there is lightning.  

Safety.  It’s like we think dying is optional.

Don’t get me wrong, safety is extremely important.  But let me frame the boundaries of what I mean.

Each of us has a sphere of influence in this life. Our vocation.  Our calling.  The places and times where we have the most opportunity to do good for those around us.  To serve God and love our neighbor.  Parent, spouse, child.  Brother, sister. Employer, employee.  Neighbor, friend.  Each of us has a span of time we are given to live on earth: 2 days; 2 months; 2 years; 20 years; 50 years; 80 years.  There is an expiration date, and between the “born” and “died” dates there is a “dash” which we fill with love and service.  Discussions of safety should be within the framework of vocation and service.  If I take care of my physical and mental health, if I take care of my body and adhere to medical advice, if I am cautious in dangerous situations and wear appropriate protective equipment, if I honor traffic laws and use some common sense, I live longer and my opportunities to love and serve others in the name of Jesus are increased.  A child killed by an unattended gun or by failure to vaccinate against a preventable disease; a young mother dead in childbirth because of unsafe medical practices; a father killed on the job through failure to use or unavailable safety equipment; a neighbor dead from suicide through lack of mental health resources – all of these are tragedies yes because someone died, but specifically because a life cut short means the lives of others are shortchanged as well.  

 

We seem to forget that the purpose of life is not to have as much fun and live as long as possible.

 

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it:  Love your neighbor as yourself.”  ~ Matthew 22: 37 – 38 

And who is my neighbor?  Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan in response to that question, with the answer being that our neighbor is anyone who needs our love and service, anyone of whom we become aware who needs something we have within our power to provide, anyone with needs we could help meet.  

The purpose of life is to love God and serve our neighbors.  Discussions of safety should be discussions that allow us to serve in greater degrees and for longer times. At least most of the time.  Sometimes, loving God and serving my neighbor may mean dying for them.

Much of the time, loving my neighbor and living out my vocations as parent, child, sibling, employee….means making wise, safe choices.  Wear the PPE.  Stay out of shark infested waters.  Don’t run into the road when traffic is coming.  

But sometimes loving my neighbor means the exact opposite: run into the burning building; swim out to rescue the drowning swimmer; dash in front of incoming traffic where the oblivious toddler is walking.  Join the military and willingly deploy into harms’ way.  Become a firefighter and contend with fire, smoke and hazardous chemicals daily and on purpose.  Become a police officer and face the possibility of violence with every traffic stop and every 911 call.  Teach in an inner city school.  Respond to screams for help from the house next door.  Stand up to the bully.  

Jesus also said “My command is this:  Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than that he lay down his life for his friends.”  John 15: 12, 13

In Romans 5: 6 – 8, Paul holds up Christ as the perfect sacrifice for sin, and the perfect example of sacrificial love:  “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  

Again in Romans, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’”  Or in Psalm 116: 15 “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”  Or in Philippians 3: 10, 11 “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” 

Should we seek death?  No!  Should we carelessly gambol with this precious gift of life, with reckless driving and abuse of the body and silly, deadly, careless mistakes?  No!  But should we fear death?  Also no.  

Discussions of safety are not about living as long as possible, being protected from as much pain and suffering as possible, with a hedonistic and selfish focus on pleasure and possessions.  Safety is about living well, so as to serve others well in the name of Jesus.  We have no fear of death, those of us redeemed by Christ and therefore promised both resurrection of the body and life everlasting with God, serving him eternally in the new heaven and new earth.  We have no fear of self-sacrifice, of service to others.  That last full measure of devotion—whether on the battlefield or burning building, or in self-sacrificial love for a neighbor in need or a child in trouble—may be what we are called to give, as we love the neighbors whom God gives us to love.  

Wear the seatbelts, put on the sunscreen, mind the gap, but not just to prolong your own life.  Live safely and live long out of love for God and in service to your neighbor.  

Heavenly Father, You sent Christ Jesus to bear our sins and die the death which we deserved.  By Your power and holiness, You resurrected Him from death and gave Him power over all things, over sin, death and the devil.  Cast out our fear of death.  Comfort us by Your Holy Spirit, and remind us of the victory we have in Christ Jesus.  Give us strength and bravery to willingly lay down our lives for those who need us; give us also wisdom and discretion to guard with good stewardship the life, health and safety with which you bless us.  Remove all fear of death and comfort us with the promises of the resurrection.  In Jesus' name, AMEN.