The Structure of Safety

I was thinking this morning about God's laws and commands and why people for the most part don't want to obey them or even consider them at all. What I see them being like is a very simple structure like the crude one I have drawn here.

It is like the frame of a house and roof but there are only beams in the corners and for the roof. One can easily go in and out of it because there is nothing to stop you. I think it represents God's commandments which are there for our safety and well being. It is just as easy to go in and out of obeying God's commandments because there is nothing to stop us, only our own desire to obey and to stay safe. G.K. Chesterton: “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing—they believe in anything.”

Christ says, “You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on.” I believe we have chosen to ignore what God has asked of us in order to embrace the tradition that society is pushing: things like - live together outside of marriage, murder through abortion unwanted children, refuse to accept the children God would give us through contraception, refuse to limit what our eyes see on TV and in movies. Basically believe that any limitation is bad, that we should be free to do anything and everything. For the un-churched this is forgivable but for those who call themselves Christian, how dare we say we follow Him and yet do these things?! And for those with high visibility, it is a scandal. Jimmy Akin advises, “While there is no lack of unworthy and traitorous Christians in the Church, it is up to each of us to counterbalance the evil done by them with our clear witness to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.”

I remember hearing years ago on Focus on the Family about a playground study. What they found was when there were no fences, the children stayed close to the center, well away from the edges. But when there were fences, they played right up to the edge of the playground because the place of safety was clearly marked. I think the commandments of God are like the playground fences. They actually give us more room, not less, because we can freely use the whole area of our lives within that structure of safety.

In Galatians 6:14 St. Paul says he is crucified to the world and the world to him. That means to me that he has decided to live within the structure of safety, God's commands, and what is outside is as if it doesn't exist, is dead to him. This is what God wants for us, that we chose to believe that He does have our best interest at heart (aren't we the apple of His eye?) and that the limits (structure) He imposes actually give us more freedom, not less. Does your pride prevent you from really being free as God desires, not as the world tempts you to be? I hope not.