Other

How Will I Make It To Safety?

by Anne O'Donnell
01/05/21
Free to Share
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

During my high school days, I jumped at every chance to get out of the house for some fun with friends. The atmosphere in our home left me feeling depressed, so changing the scenery to break the tension came as a welcome change.

One particular night, I risked driving our family Volkswagen Beetle across town with a friend in the middle of an ice storm so I could listen to a rock band I followed, which meant maneuvering through traffic on a five lane highway, of which I was petrified but dared not show any signs of it.

As the snow accumulated and hampered visibility, my control of the vehicle gradually diminished as we swerved around some curves, bracing ourselves against imminent dangers coming from any direction. Suddenly, my car hit an ice patch and took a spin across two lanes, hit the guard rail, spun again, only to glide across three lanes going in the opposite direction, and coming to a complete stop facing oncoming traffic.

The incident scared me half out of my wits, and once I measured the distance traveled on ice without getting hit, my first thought was, “I am still alive”, and my second thought was, “How am I going to make it to safety?”

How am I going to make it to safety? Those words have resonated in my heart more times than I can count.

Another incident occurred involving chest pains I interpreted as a possible heart attack. The stress in my life had accumulated to unparalleled levels and left me feeling certain my time on earth was coming to an end. My son, who is a first responder, came to the rescue and with the help of his team mates, hooked me up to the monitors which revealed my heart was safe and secure, and no reason to have any fear.

Life has a way of cornering us into tight places where we feel trapped, and without the means to secure immediate safety.

These two accounts paint a vivid picture of what happens when urgency confronts our circumstances or fear binds us to a false belief that we will suffocate inside the worst case scenario. Paralyzed and not in our right mind, we stay stuck on the present moment and fail to realize the Shepherd of our soul is standing right next to us, assuring us there is really nothing to fear. He is our safety, yet our human reasoning and lack of clear spiritual vision impair our discernment to believe this is true.

How am I going to make it to safety? we ask ourselves.

Jesus promises to be our ever present help in time of need. He promises to carry us when we cannot carry ourselves. He promise to give us rest when we are weary, and he promises to carry on to completion that which he began.

Some of these promises are easier to grab hold of than others, and in our weakness, we try to rationalize that the answer we long for should be more readily visible. But God doesn’t always work that way. His answers always include trust and faith. Those are two ingredients we must present to our heavenly father when calling upon him for help – we must trust that he has help to give, and we must have faith he will deliver it on his timetable.

God does not play tricks on our mind, but rather he longs to fulfill the plans he has for our lives using circumstances we would have never chosen. His ways are above our ways, and if we wait patiently, we soon find the safety as we rest inside his will for our lives. Never give up hope. Never stop believing. Always trust him. Always believe our Father knows best.