Vulnerable or Safe?
Journal 2005 03 10
Vulnerable or Safe?
Winter returns to the prairie. Minus two for a low and a high of twelve degrees.
Two Hidatsa chiefs visit today and the Captains learn of their history. Their tribal name speaks of “the people who live high on a hill”. (Where that “hill” might be on the prairie who knows?) Sioux and Assiniboine neighbors continually made war on the Hidatsa’s. The Hidatsa’s moved closer to the Mandan’s because the Mandan’s were larger and willing to ally their strength with the Hidatsa’s. There had since been much intermarriage and melding of their tribes and cultures.
Security is one of our primal needs as people. It is even more basic than a human need. When hunting, good habitat for any animal includes water, food and good cover. Good cover is really good security. If animals have a place of cover, a safe hiding place, a refuge, they find security.
In America, we have the blessings of good cover. We have not had to find safety from our enemies because our might has kept them at bay. Imagine being a Christian in Uganda under Idi Amin or in Rwanda as butchers of humans attack. The safety of good cover means life and death.
We nod in assent when the Lord proclaims in Proverbs 18:10 that “the Name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it and are safe.” Good cover? The best! Have we had need to run to that tower for our lives? Or do most of us just know it is true if we needed it someday? We take the blessings of peace for granted. We shouldn’t.
There is a tension that exists between good and evil. This tension is reflected in predator and prey. Prey is required to expose themselves to the predators during the course of living. Prey tries to be ever on the alert and never be far from safe cover.
Because of the abundance of God’s good cover over our land we have become complacent and unaware of the predator who, like a lion, “prowls about seeking who he can devour”.
We must go about our daily business, understanding our exposure to the predator in the process. We must become alert to the predator and his practice of stealth and deception. He will only attack when he has gained close enough access to judge he can overcome our security measures and ability to defend ourselves and make a retreat to safe cover.
I could write volumes about the wiles of our enemies and their insatiable thirst to devour. My purpose and God’s purpose this morning is to remind us that we need community for safety. Like the Hidatsa’s who were under attack by a superior force, sought out friendly neighbors and found safety, we are to seek out our ‘neighbors”, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and find safety. And we all are to look to the Name of the Lord as our spiritual place of safety and refuge, a strong tower. Under attack? Run to the name of the Lord and enter His strong tower, His fortress. No evil can befall you in His place of refuge.
Vulnerable or Safe?
Winter returns to the prairie. Minus two for a low and a high of twelve degrees.
Two Hidatsa chiefs visit today and the Captains learn of their history. Their tribal name speaks of “the people who live high on a hill”. (Where that “hill” might be on the prairie who knows?) Sioux and Assiniboine neighbors continually made war on the Hidatsa’s. The Hidatsa’s moved closer to the Mandan’s because the Mandan’s were larger and willing to ally their strength with the Hidatsa’s. There had since been much intermarriage and melding of their tribes and cultures.
Security is one of our primal needs as people. It is even more basic than a human need. When hunting, good habitat for any animal includes water, food and good cover. Good cover is really good security. If animals have a place of cover, a safe hiding place, a refuge, they find security.
In America, we have the blessings of good cover. We have not had to find safety from our enemies because our might has kept them at bay. Imagine being a Christian in Uganda under Idi Amin or in Rwanda as butchers of humans attack. The safety of good cover means life and death.
We nod in assent when the Lord proclaims in Proverbs 18:10 that “the Name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it and are safe.” Good cover? The best! Have we had need to run to that tower for our lives? Or do most of us just know it is true if we needed it someday? We take the blessings of peace for granted. We shouldn’t.
There is a tension that exists between good and evil. This tension is reflected in predator and prey. Prey is required to expose themselves to the predators during the course of living. Prey tries to be ever on the alert and never be far from safe cover.
Because of the abundance of God’s good cover over our land we have become complacent and unaware of the predator who, like a lion, “prowls about seeking who he can devour”.
We must go about our daily business, understanding our exposure to the predator in the process. We must become alert to the predator and his practice of stealth and deception. He will only attack when he has gained close enough access to judge he can overcome our security measures and ability to defend ourselves and make a retreat to safe cover.
I could write volumes about the wiles of our enemies and their insatiable thirst to devour. My purpose and God’s purpose this morning is to remind us that we need community for safety. Like the Hidatsa’s who were under attack by a superior force, sought out friendly neighbors and found safety, we are to seek out our ‘neighbors”, our brothers and sisters in Christ, and find safety. And we all are to look to the Name of the Lord as our spiritual place of safety and refuge, a strong tower. Under attack? Run to the name of the Lord and enter His strong tower, His fortress. No evil can befall you in His place of refuge.
posted by @2007 Dick Cinkovich | 10:31 PM
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