Long term insurance by Deon Crafford

Psalm 18:31-36 For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?— the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights. He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great. You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip.

If we were to be asked to name one thing that universally troubles the world, chances are good that the answers would cluster around security in its various forms and presentations. The current viral pandemic blowing across the globe has emphasised this troubling ever more. The world lives in fear and concern for a future that either may never come or may be so different that the constant threat to security may cause perpetual stress and trauma. Regardless of whether security is physical, emotional or financial, you’d find people constantly grinding away at efforts to ensure that all the boxes are ticked, all the alarms have been set, all the savings and investments are in states of good returns, everyone seems to love me, my place in the old age home is booked, my funeral policy is paid up, my physical check-up is passed …. yes, I think I am allright now. When you look at it like this you cannot but fall into a sense of pity for all of mankind. We appear shackled to this millstone of constantly working our security, with a little living in between, until the day that physical death comes and wryly smiles on all our efforts of guarantee.

Should we not concern ourselves with issues of security then? Are we foolish to plan ahead, to be vigilant and cautious where social decay is rife, and to seek trust and consistency in relationships? No, not foolish but realistic. The trouble perhaps for us is what we’re trying to secure and how much of who we are is consumed by these efforts. When Jesus drew the resurrection line in the sand, He turned physical death from the end to the beginning and with it He neutralised our anxieties about it. At the same time he reframed our efforts in finding security to merely finding Him, in Whom the whole future of the whole world holds. And yet even though we confess and believe this, we will continuously find ourselves troubled by this question of security. Perhaps we should call it the question of shorter term comfort. Shorter term because it only deals with a sub-atomic part of eternity. Even if mankind were to live to 200 years eventually – the time period of our security concerns will be invisibly small. This is where we need to transition our minds to – we’re obsessed with the minute, instead of the immeasurable.

After the empty grave, we cannot but be transformed, also in our outlook on issues of security. If God would go to the extent He did to secure my eternal future, why would He not hold every part of who I am now in His hand? Why would my life here matter less to Him than my life in eternity? Why would He desire relationship with me then, but not pursue and secure it now? Even though in the physical it may appear foolish to live in Spiritual security alone, it would be even more foolish to discount what God had done through Jesus Christ to provide me eternal security. We need to live our physical lives here on earth in full use of our God-given faculties, but we’d be foolish to trade the security of the risen Christ, who constantly pursues me with joy and affection, for the anxiety of my short term insurance.

Love to all