Once we are aware of our own fault lines, we seek to reinforce these places with the sturdy, immovable, unchangeable words of Scripture. Grass withers, flowers fade, and false centers shake, but the Word of God stands forever (Isaiah 40:8). We would do well to listen to the advice of writer of Hebrews to those in the early church who were being shaken by persecution: “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Hebrews 2:1).

When our family moved from the Southeast to Southern California a dozen years ago, we were loath to leave a strong network of relationships yet ready to leave behind mosquitos and humidity. We joked that someone had to move to one of the most beautiful cities in America to serve Jesus in a nearly perfect climate. Our weather may remain stable, but underneath the surface, where the naked eye cannot see, our city sits uncomfortably close to San Andreas fault. As secure as our home and neighborhood may seem, the illusion of security is quite literally only seconds away from being shaken.

The topographical position of our city serves as a helpful analogy to the spiritual condition of our souls. You see, we are only as secure as the source of our functional centers. Put another way, we are as vulnerable as the sources of our security. If our sense of security depends upon our financial package, we will ride the wave of the markets, our hope rising and diving with the DOW. If our sense of security depends upon the success or health of our children, we will find ourselves only as stable as the most recent test scores, well checks, or college acceptance letters. If we put even our local church congregation as the functional source of our security, our sense of stability will fluctuate with attendance, tithing, and congregational health.

While the human longing for security and stability is as old as humanity itself, we are living in a cultural moment where safety and security remain in the forefront of our minds and in the foreground of conversations. In the past year, two conversations with pastors from other continents exposed the growing idol of security in and around me. Both pastors, upon moving to the United States, noted a markedly higher hunger for safety and security in America. This struck me as strange because both came from countries where the threat of war was an everyday reality. In my mind, they had real reasons to be worried about security; however, here they were noticing how much Americans, myself included, obsessed over it. It seems that living in a largely peaceable land does not assure that we have peace in our souls.

The Fragility of Idols

Our souls were always intended to be centered and stayed upon our Creator. We were created from the stable, secure, self-giving love of our Triune God, who made us dignified yet dependent (Genesis 1:26-27). Humans, though crowned with glory and honor, were made as dependent created beings intended to be derive their security from God, their center, Creator, and Sustainer (Psalm 8:3-6; Genesis 1:31). Adam and Eve, in their devastating disobedience, placed self at the center where only God belonged, and we have been following suit ever since.

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