An honest man, bereft of God, will admit he feels insecure and vulnerable. Cain, upon being driven out by God, complained that he would be “hidden from your face — I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.” Thus God mercifully placed his mark on him as a means to protect him.
God never designed men to live without his divine presence and canopy. But he did design men in his image – with the ability to choose, to beget families and to create human societies – all with the intention that these things would be under God’s divine covering. In the Garden of Eden the serpent subtly insinuated that God had a hidden motive for all these wonders and was not to be trusted. So Adam and Eve took matters into their own hands. And upon doing this their immediate realization was that they were naked, exposed and vulnerable – no longer beneath God’s covering. And so God himself clothed them.
Our feelings of vulnerability often do not drive us to God, but from him. These feelings cause us to seek out security in ourselves and other things. But in the final analysis this is irrational – we seek a security against forces that are clearly larger and more powerful than ourselves. They are not human-sized, but God-sized.
An aside: Feelings of vulnerability stem from the actual state of vulnerability. In other words, we feel vulnerable because we are vulnerable. And yet most of us have no idea how vulnerable we are, (and we wonder why we suffer).
We seek security in money, in positions, in people, in systems and in influence and power. The problem is that there is no amount of money, no position high enough (President of the World anyone?), no relationship strong enough, no system integrated enough, to provide enough security to keep us from getting hurt. And we know this because it is self-evident. Think: hurricanes, nuclear wars, solar flares, asteroids, revolution, disease, injury, rejection and more. And the very systems that promise security, often end up as a means of tyranny and destruction.
But all this is global thinking. What about the individual? It’s the same thing – often our means of security turns against us and we wind up destroying ourselves.
Take money for example. We often seek money as a hedge against the inevitable rainy day. We save or invest or buy insurance and the money (at least on paper) grows (or shrinks). And as it grows, we put more trust in it, until we imagine ourselves to be ‘financially secure.’ But this imaginary position now gnaws at our mind and we worry over its loss. We either end up chronically tormented, or, since we’re now ‘financially secure,’ we can’t leave well enough alone. So we imagine doubling, tripling our money, to buy a bigger house, bigger car, bigger boat, and on it goes, until we’re consumed with avarice. Consequently – at least potentially – we end up destroying our marriage, family, job and lose everything.
Psalm 115 describes this phenomenon well:
Why should the Gentiles say,
“So where is their God?”
But our God is in heaven;
He does whatever He pleases.
Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but they do not speak;
Eyes they have, but they do not see;
They have ears, but they do not hear;
Noses they have, but they do not smell;
They have hands, but they do not handle;
Feet they have, but they do not walk;
Nor do they mutter through their throat.
Those who make them are like them;
So is everyone who trusts in them. — Psalm 115:2–8
We become what we behold.
This describes the great hollowing of souls; it describes the slow transformation of losing our humanity. In the process of focusing on the inanimate, be it money, sexual fantasy, food or any number of empty pursuits, we lose our ability to listen, to communicate, to think, to speak, to remember – all of the things that make us human. In the end, we become empty shells of what God intended us to be. Consequently we become like those blind, deaf and dumb idols. This is what idols do: they promise health and wealth (salvation), but end up destroying those who trust in them. See also: Lie: idolatry is rare, part 1 and part 2.
The truth is we simply cannot find security outside of God himself; true security is only found in Jesus Christ.
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. — Colossians 3:1–4
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