Growing up in the USA in the 60’s and 70’s, I learned to trust my safety to society around me. It seemed like roads, cars, healthcare, government, law enforcement, and schools were all safe. But an honest look back showed me that this was not true.

We hurled our bodies down the highway at 80 mph without a seatbelt. We thought margarine was a health food and fresh vegetables only happened if you grew them yourself. Doctors smoked. Nuclear arms were tested near us. High school graduates were drafted to lose limbs and lives in a jungle. A president was assassinated. Prejudice influenced our law enforcement and judicial system. School playgrounds had wicked merry-go-rounds that worked like a centrifuge on steroids and we had sirens go off periodically to remind us that the USSR was coming for us with nuclear weapons. Billy Joel expresses this well in We Didn’t Start the Fire.

So is everything safe now? We all know that isn’t true after the highly trained, best-of-the-best secret service failed to protect a former President and hundreds of law enforcement officers failed to protect children from an armed kid in a classroom. So what is the point? We are not safe. We were never safe. We will never be safe on this earth. We should never place our faith in our government, our healthcare, our law enforcement or our schools. That gives us a false sense of security. They are all just fallible people; hired hands.

John 10:12-15 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me- just as the Father knows me and I know the Father-and I lay down my life for the sheep.

Instead of trusting people in powerful positions of our society maybe we should put our faith in the only One who loves us with his life and is the supreme almighty. If we have an issue, we should take it to the top; the omnipotent (unlimited power) omniscient (knowing the present past and future), omnipresent (everywhere at the same time), loving, compassionate Savior. We don’t understand His ways and often use that as an excuse not to trust Him. We have a choice: trust our lives to a fallible system of hired hands that can be manipulated or we can choose a Savior who is motivated by his love for us but whose ways we can’t fathom and we cannot orchestrate. It is ours to choose every morning.

Lord, you are in control. Help me give up my false sense of security in government and people and place my hope in You alone, taking everything to you in prayer.