"Taken" and Security

Oh, wow! My 16-year-old daughter and I just went on an afternoon date. She got to choose where we went. I have to brag a little bit. I’d have been okay watching "Paul Blart Mall Cop" or "Madea Goes To Jail."

She chose to see "Taken," staring one of my favorites, Liam Neeson. Big mistake. The movie was excellent and I’d highly recommend it, but the epidemic portrayed in the movie is VERY real and sad. From now on she’s not allowed to go farther than the mailbox in front of our house.

Okay, seriously, this movie drives another point home to me. The father, played by Neeson, has misgivings about his 17-year-old daughter going to Paris with a friend. While his fears and paranoia are confirmed, it drives another point home to me. No matter how hard I try, I cannot protect my family.

I can thump my chest, declaring what a grizzly "papa bear" I am. Ultimately, however, I’ve come to the realization that my family’s safety and security are not in my hands. My family’s safety rests in the hands of a God who loves them more than I can.

He is Jehovah-jireh, their Provider, Jehovah-nissi, their Banner, Jehovah-Shalom, my Peace, and Jehovah-shammad, always Present with them! My God is a Strong Tower (Proverb 18:10), in whom they are safer than I can ever keep them. My God is a Rock on whom the enemy can crash without effect. A Fortress on whom the enemy’s assault will not prevail. A Deliverer! (Psalm 18:2)

This isn’t a series of platitudes. It’s reality I’ve witnessed. God provided the means for my two oldest kids to minister in South Africa, once on a brief youth mission in ’06 and then on individual mission internships for several months apiece. He’s also used each of them on various missions, including several places in and out of the United States. All of this, He did before they entered college.

I came to the realization quite a while ago that I wasn’t keeping them safe. He was going to have to handle their safety. Do I know they’ll be uninjured, out of danger, or away from the fire? In a word, "No." All I have is His promise that they will not be outside of His authority or love. They will not be alone. Like Daniel’s buddies told the king, "…He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not…" (Daniel 3:17-18) The most important part of this declaration is "even if He does not!"

I am aware that sitting around singing hymns and quoting verses will not keep my family from being touch by the enemy. Serving a living, loving, always present, all ways powerful God, means that He can do all things. But even if He doesn’t keep us comfortable, unscathed, and un-inconvenienced, He has (past tense) delivered us from the enemy’s grasp. (Check out Job’s testimony.)

Where is YOUR SECURITY?
John 10:28-30 "and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."