God Is Not Safe!

Mark Buchanan, one of my favorite authors, says this:

The safe god asks nothing of us, gives nothing to us. He never drives us to our knees in hungry, desperate praying and never sets us on our feet in fierce, fixed determination.

He never makes us bold to dance. The safe god never whispers in our ears anything but greeting card slogans and certainly never asks that we embarrass ourselves by shouting out from the rooftop.

A safe god inspires neither awe, nor worship, nor sacrifice.

The safe god has pretty much killed the power of recognition in us, and so when the real God comes into our midst, we mostly don't even bother to look up.

The safe god has no power to console us in grief or shake us from complacency or rescue us from the pit. He just putters in his garden, smiles benignly, waves now and then, and mostly spends a lot of time in his room doing puzzles.

It's as though God was a half-daft old uncle, hair sprouting from his ears, a bit runny about the eyes, winking at our little pranks and peccadilloes.

Well, that's nice.

BUT GOD ISN'T NICE. GOD ISN'T SAFE. GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE.

God's main business is not ensuring that you and I get parking spaces close to the mall entrance or that the bed sheets in the color we want are--miracle!--on sale this week.

HIS MAIN BUSINESS IS MAKING YOU AND ME HOLY.

I may share more from this book, "Your God Is Too Safe," in the next few days. This book convicts me, challenges me, even haunts me. I can't get over it.