Creating the Safe Space That Gives You Life

EXISTENTIAL struggles are the nexus of life; none of us can avoid them. And the more truthful we are about what interminable struggles we have, the more we will struggle with the truth. This life lived in the truth is not sufferable unless it’s lived at harmony with God.

God’s purpose in life is that we approach truth; that we accommodate it.

When we realise what the truth requires of us, we may be found back-peddling. We don’t want what can seem so eerily scary. Our truths are often too much. We need safety. Safety is implicit for the journey.

So if we’re to live the abundant life Jesus came to give us, meaning we need to bear our truths, we will need safety.

Safety is created when we journey with a mentor and counsellor who’ll show us how to hold and contain truth in such a way as it is no threat. They show us that safety must always come first, but that advancing into our fear is also necessary.

So, as if we had a phobia to overcome, we enter with courage the tumult to be faced, but the assurance that we’re safe. Whenever that assurance leaves we have permission to rescind a little.

We go there with an inheritance of the Lord’s Presence with us. God is with us. And, if need be, we go there with a guide as well — that mentor or counsellor. This is not simply about learning for liberty in this situation, but it’s about learning for life. Whatever safety we’re able to acquire for handling the present fear is a safety we can apply more broadly.

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Safety fortifies courage. The safer we feel, the more courageous we can be. It’s perfectly appropriate to need to feel safe. In change, in loss, in grief, and in all relational and life challenges, safety is needed if we hope to succeed.

When safety is on-board we have the capacity to enter many things we’d fearfully shrink from. The question always seems to be, “What does that safety look like, and where and how is it to be obtained?”

Growth in God is determined by our journey in the truth. And truth can only be borne in safety. So safety is the key to how God will take us from fear into a capacity to bear our truth.

Safety is the great enabler in life. Where we feel safe we’re able to enter. And what we can enter no longer stands in our way.

Life is achieved, and truth is our home, when the only fear we have is a reverent, holy fear.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.