All Things Safe

By Olya Lambert

The western world seems to have become increasingly safety-minded. We fasten seatbelts, put kids in helmets, check for food safety handling permits, install security systems and take every measure imaginable to stay out of danger.

It’s safe to order food from your favorite restaurant in town, as opposed to buying a mysterious dish from the street vendor in Phuket, Beijing, or Calcutta. It’s safe to go sledding down in the valley, but not skiing at the top of the canyon where majestic views and sparkling in the sun snow take away all breath. It’s beautiful to fall head over heels in love, but it’s not recommended if you want to be safe and never experience heartbreak. And giving up lovemaking can be the safest form of family planning, if you want a guaranteed zero pregnancy outcome. What we choose in life sets a ceiling to our experience. And this applies to things spiritual. 

Our tendency is to set limits and boundaries around the things we believe, to create an intangible box out of dogmas and tenets that will keep our faith secure. And while it’s true that we put things in a box to keep them safe, we also put them there to burry, to die. After all, what’s safer than a coffin?!?! 

Under the guise of security we allow our spirituality to become stifled. And while I recognize that the Savior wants us to be like children, I don’t think He meant that we should forever remain spiritually immature, and stunted in our growth. 

Spiritually speaking it appears we are like little children that would prefer not to grow up at all. Like jolly kindergartners we want to forever stay on the story rug with juice and goldfish, rather than move up a grade. 

Like children we know it’s safe to do what we are told!!! And so, we are always looking for an authority figure to validate our choices and decisions. We know our only safety is in trusting our church leaders, because… oh irony… that’s what they told us!!! And when offered a meaty doctrinal shish kabab, we act like devout vegetarians that have not yet been weaned from pasteurized milk.

But really, we are not that little any more, although our need to be held by the hand is really strong. We are much more like High school seniors that are frantically, in absolute panic looking around for a grown up to help us get to the other side of a busy road! 

We need “to wait and see” for the outcome of this vaccine, because we can’t make up our mind whether it is good or bad, not realizing that every decision and indecision has a formidable opportunity cost!!!

We opt to “stay in the boat” that is safely anchored at the harbor and ironically, tragically “miss the boat” that has any chance of taking us to our heavenly destination. 

It’s very safe to stay “in the mainstream” with migrating salmon, until you realize that the ultimate purpose of making the arduous journey en masse was not to spawn…but to die. 

It’s safe to be silent, rather than speak out against evil. It’s safe to look the other way when someone is being violated. Until that person is you. 

It’s hard not to wonder how Jesus must feel about us, His covenant children that are clearly not acting our age. In D&C He says that we are like little children who “have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you” (D&C 78:17). The poignant thing is that we are not asking to understand because that isn’t safe. 

Being safe, error and growth free plays right along with the plan of the Adversary. Even Satan knows how to tap into our need for safety and “carefully”, not recklessly, mind you, “leads us down to hell”. And the promise of risk-free “carnal security” is offered by him, not the Lord (2 Nephi 28:21)

From my recollection, Christ was NEVER one to look for safety! Calling out evil, never mincing words. He overthrows the tables of money changers, confronts the hypocrites! He doesn’t run when faced with His accusers, but serves and loves them even in the very act of betrayal. The boats of life He got in were always tempest tossed. But Regal and Unafraid, as a Lion of Judah, Christ walked the streets of Jerusalem filled with those that would seek His life. May we find the courage to stand with Christ, completely unsafe, but full of love and freedom!