No Safe Place

As Lynn occasionally keeps reminding me (like I'm going to forget), it is almost time for our yearly pilgrimage to the left coast for the Pepperdine Bible Lectures. We have been blessed tremendously for the last 16 years by the challenging Bible study, uplifting worship and great fellowship at our brotherhoods premier gathering. For Lynn and I, the Pepperdine lectures are (literally and spiritually) a mountaintop experience.

For many of those years, Lynn and I have taken the three days before the lectures actually start to enjoy a little mini-vacation on the California coast. Hey, we out there anyway, so why not. After a year or two do seeing all the Southern California tourist stuff (Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, a Dodger's game, etc), we found a little resort town halfway between L.A. and San Fran called Pismo Beach. There impressive cliffs cascade right down to the ocean, and the long, sandy beach provides one of the most impressive beach walks anywhere.

Yesterday, Pismo Beach made the national news, likely in the only way a sleepy little tourist town is going to make the national news. A 60 year old homeless man walked into the Denny's where we've eaten a dozen times and began killing people. Two men were killed, one right in front of his granddaughter, and a married couple were wounded. Then the gunman turned his gun on himself. This kind of mindless violence is unfortunately not rare, but in Pismo Beach? In our Denny's? Our quiet little getaway became Baghdad for a day. No place is safe.

There is no safe place in this world. No matter how sleepy and off the beaten path, no place is completely safe. No matter how well we take care of ourselves, our health is never safe. No matter how hard we try to raise our kids right, they will never be completely safe. Our marriages, jobs, relationships and our very lives are never really safe. The only safe place is in God. Paul said, "For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God" (Col 3:33). Faith does not keep the bad things from happening, but it does keep the bad things from destroying us. When our lives are hidden with Him, then Christ become sour life (see Col 3:34). and then nothing can harm us... ultimately. David says this in Psalm 31:7-8 (NLT)--

I am overcome with joy because of your unfailing love,
for you have seen my troubles,
and you care about the anguish of my soul.
You have not handed me over to my enemy
but have set me in a safe place.