Every time I plop down in one of the charcoal-grey Adirondack chairs in our backyard, Sadie, the yellow-Labrador Retriever, sits on my feet. She doesn’t want me to leave. When I sit to read or type a meditation on my laptop, I feel a sense of security knowing she’s there as well as Bentley, her brother, our black-Labrador Retriever. He lays beside her, and as long as I’m seated they are faithfully there, although they usually doze off and take what we humans call a power nap. And the moment I do get up, so are they.
Security is something we all crave and something we try to encircle our lives with. Like our home alarms, home owner’s insurance, and car insurance policies, cause life happens, and it seems to be regularly messy. There are tons of things that make us feel insecure.
Jackie Hill Perry writes, “Every few months or days-who knows the time when you’re suffering-God makes life hard again. Relationships get weird. Money gets funny. Mind gets confused. Heart gets weary, but the wicked? They wake up every morning with a confounding combination of no fear of God and what looks like all of His favor.” (Upon Waking, pg. 28) Life is SCARY!
Every Halloween our grandkids visit us because where they live, no one trick or treats. And in preparation for Halloween 2024, I told my wife I needed a blanket. “For what?” she asked. In response I said, “I’m dressing up as Linus and I want you to dress up as Sally, his older sister, from the Peanuts gang. And Linus is not Linus without his security blanket.” Last year my wife was Lucy and I was Charlie Brown and our two grandkids loved it. “We gotta keep up the tradition, and I need a blue blanket like Linus had,” I said.
It is funny to think that a small blue blanket would make Linus feel secure. According to www.merriam-webster.com “In the 1920s, a security blanket was a blanket that was placed over a sleeping child and fastened by clips. Although the security blanket did, indeed, secure the little one—essentially, strapping him or her to the bed—the anchored blanket was designed so that in the event that the child became restless, he or she would remain snugly covered. Needless to say, this security blanket is now considered medieval.”
Yeah, I’d look weird dragging a blue security blanket as I walked down a grocery isle or walked our neighborhood or even walked into church on Sundays. So, what can you and I hold onto in our hearts, souls and minds as we live this crazy, unpredictable life?
One word answers that question. It is S-C-R-I-P-T-U-R-E. Correction. Two words answer that question. Memorized Scripture. It’s one thing to turn to where your pastor asks you to turn in your Bible at church. It’s quite another, outside of church, to believe with all your heart, soul and mind that the verse that you memorized is real because God keeps His word. God comes through. God delivers. God answers prayers. God speaks. God is specific. God meets you where you are in the most detailed fashion–if you’d just believe by putting His Words into your daily-messy-life.
Say ‘em out loud. Write ‘em down. Put ‘em in your phone or tablet. Quote ‘em back to God.
Here are a few verses that comfort me with a spiritual security that our world cannot offer:
Deuteronomy 31:6—-“So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.” (NLT)
Psalm 121:3b—-“He who watches over you will not slumber.” (NIV)
Isaiah 26:7b—-“You are a God who does what is right, and you smooth out the path ahead of them.” (NLT)
Isaiah 41:10—-“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (NIV)
Before another week, or another day, why not pull up the security blanket of God’s promises by pulling out His word. Get out a highlighter pen. His Word is your daily bread, your daily spiritual sustenance. Chew on it. Digest it and let it flow in and out of you so when the strong winds of insecurity come, you are securely covered.
pictures (me and the labs and our front-yard garden) courtesy of “Nelson and his Nikon” except for the man in a blue blanket and a man reading the Bible-courtesy of pexels.com