Security
A Gathering Voices Post by Don McKim
The capture and death of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi presented, once again, grisly views of a deposed and murdered dictator. Gadhafi’s forty-two years of rule were riddled by murders and executions, making him hated by many Libyan citizens, the citizens who overthrew his government and subsequently killed him. With his death comes hope for a new country; and for a security that will keep citizens safe from a hostile government.
“Security” is a topic of concern for everyone. In our nation itself, we are concerned about terrorist attacks. In cities and towns, crime is a major issue. In our families, our jobs and quests for well-being circle around security and how we can attain it.
All these issues have their place among our worries. They certainly do.
But in the ultimate sense, in relation to Christian faith, our security does not rest in anything we can “do” to make ourselves “safe.” Our security, of course, is in God and in the hope we have in Jesus Christ.
Karl Barth put it well:
The security of the Christian is not that fancied by the Stoics. The Christian is secure, absolutely and essentially secure, because [our] life is hid with the risen Christ in God, i.e., with the One who was not overcome by the world but overcame it (Col. 3:3) [Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV/3/2:645.]
It is good, sometimes, to step back from the proximate concerns of life and focus on our ultimate concerns. In the ebb and flow of what happens to us and what reaches beyond us, our deepest hopes rest in where our lives are located—“hidden with Christ in God.” Despite all the world can do to us—and does!—there is ultimate security in having our lives “hidden”—by faith—in the risen Christ who has overcome the world (John 16:33; “conquered”—NRSV).
As Jesus said, “Take courage”! (John 16:33)
