Now you may be saying that’s great Nathan I get safety in my heavenly father, but what do I do with all those other people in my life?
Let’s be honest, most of us don’t feel safe around most people.
As leaders, sometimes we’ve been trained to live lives with a permanent mask, never trusting that anyone is safe. Even our church leaders may fail to bring transparency to the table and subsequently we may live lives behind a false façade. We may believe that living this way, gives others a sense of security while never letting them in on the things that really matter to our heart. we may wrongly believe that if they were able to see the real me, they wouldn’t approve or affirm who I am. And they would probably tell everyone else about all of my wrongdoings.
What do you mean by safety? We are often times masters at sharing what’s good or creating a veneer that never lets people below the surface. But what about spaces to be vulnerable? What about places to share safely the success and the suffering?
A space to reflect back on the success in your life. The ways that God showed up. The ways that God brought things together. The ways that God built your faith. What about spaces to safely share this suffering in your story? The time with God didn’t show up. Or didn’t show up… Yet. The time things didn’t work out the way that you had planned.
We’ve all got it. Moments we’re not proud of. Seasons that we wish we could go change our moments when we were ready to throw in the towel.
But let me encourage you. If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, God works everything for good. He can take that moment of suffering and transform it in a beautiful fruit. He can take that moment of despair and turning around for victory.
And heck, as human beings, I’m sure we’ve all shared something with people we thought were safe, people we thought we could trust. only to have what we shared, in confidence be blurted out in the open. For some of us, that breach of trust, or the realization that that wasn’t a safe person to share with, left us momentarily damaged or worst, un willing to step out and be transparent ever again.
My friend can I encourage you to forgive others, lean into one another with transparency and vulnerability even in the midst of possibly being exposed? It’s true that we must be careful with the people that we are vulnerable with. It’s true that we must exercise, godly wisdom, in who we take into our confidence. But too often the enemy uses our fear of safety as a weapon against us, forcing us to hide in unhealthy ways and stunting our growth, because we are never real with each other.
I have to believe that some of the men on this call right now have found security and safety in the Lord, freedom in confessing their sins to an Almighty God, and have received forgiveness in this journey called life. There are undoubtedly men on this call right now who are godly, mature, and have enough life experiences that they can offer a form of flesh and blood safety for whatever you’re going through.
May we be men who listen well, who are slow to judgment and extend empathy that creates spaces of safety, so that we can grow and thrive on our journey with Jesus.
I want to encourage to find safety in the presence of a loving God, to experience intimacy with Jesus, his son, and strength in the power of the Holy Spirit,.
And I want to encourage you to take one extra step a bold, courageous and intentional move towards building a community of confession.
When we confess our sins, one to another Our healing begins. When we drop the masks and lean vulnerably, we can truly shine brightly in Atlanta, the state of Georgia and the world.
When we take up the invitation to rest when we move into the areas of retreat, encouragement and safety, we start to become the men of God we were intended to be.
Tomorrow will move it to the last letter of the letter of the rest model. I pray, retreat, encouragement, and safe places to be yourself or poured into your life in an overwhelming abundance.
I closed with this prayer from Paul in the book of Ephesians.
“My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:14-19 MSG