Author: Liz Goss

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis wrote: Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh,” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”…” Safe?” said Mr. Beaver …” Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Why do we expect God to be safe? Why do we expect life to be safe? Why do we expect our dreams, interpersonal encounters, and best-laid plans to be safe? When we were younger we didn’t ask this question. We let our soul ask its own questions: where is the romance, what is my irreplaceable role, do I have a beauty all my own to unveil??? None of these questions are safe. Not one. They have led us into our deepest wounds. But they are where our greatest joys live too.

What is safety? Something that is safe has been denied the chance to do harm. But if you deny even the possibility of bad then can you really trust the good either? You live in a middle ground, frequently played on by Hollywood movies like the Matrix, the Truman Show, and (here’s a stretch) Brigadoon. When God created people he created them with free will so that their choice to love Him would be genuine. Not forced. Not safe. Bad things followed and a rescue was initiated. That’s the crazy love story we live in today. A very unsafe space of radical love, danger, tough choices, uncertainty, testimony, opposition, conquests and so much more.

How are you living your life? Are you trying your hardest to stay safe or are you trusting in a God who has nothing but good for you? Yes, there will be hard things but they will transform you in ways He wants you to grow if you turn to Him. Don’t place safety over the goodness of God’s character. Trust the questions of your heart to a God who knows you best and loves you most.

Right now. Are you stressed and busy, about to self soothe with a drive thru feast? Or maybe a glass (or two) of wine to help relax after work and kids and dishes and all the people-y situations of the day. Do you need retail therapy or a Netflix binge or a talk with a good friend about a not so good friend who pushes your buttons? Do you need a vacation? Maybe chocolate would help. Or a good run. Right this moment I bet you can tell me what you need. What do you need?

Society is really geared towards self care. Just about anyone you meet will tell you that you should absolutely go get that spa pedicure because you can’t pour from an empty cup. Women have too long been convinced that they have to give 200% and so many right now are feeling tired and stressed and worn down. And the answer you are finding is “me time”. Decide what you need and do it! Without guilt. To recharge your batteries.

And I’m not against self care. After all, you actually CAN’T pour from an empty cup. There are completely correct reasons to take breaks and care for ourselves. But here is the catch. Maybe even a dangerous trap.

Saint Augustine writes in his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”  Perhaps Augustine’s most often quoted phrase, it captures something that resonates deep within us.

Self care will not fill up your heart and give you what you truly need. It can help you relax. It can fill your belly. It can relieve anxiety or give you a break. But after the moment you set aside has passed your situations will all still be there to be faced. Without a change of heart, mind and perspective those situations will push you continuously toward your new self soothing behaviors. Until you find yourself with a whole new problem that looms: overeating, alcoholism, impulsive shopping, media addiction, gossip, escapism, chocoholic obsessions or over exercising.

What you need today can become tomorrow’s biggest battle… because we were created for a purpose and with a hole that only one thing can fill. God created you to need HIM and to have your needs met by him. How can I say this, you might wonder? How can I know what you need? And you. And you.

For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. – John 6:33-35

God want to have a special and sacred relationship with us where HE is what we need because we are what he wants. Always. Every time. When we think a drive thru will settle our moods we really need the presence of God. Wine, retail therapy, Netflix, friends, vacations, chocolate and endorphins are temporary soul substitutes for the blood of Jesus that paves our way to the Father. And because we were made for relationship with our God nothing else will satisfy long term.

Self care isn’t selfish… but it is pointless if we really need to get with God and allow him to change the way we think, feel and see the world into the way he wants us to see it. So get that pedicure. Eat that chocolate. Watch that mini series… if you want to. But if you feel like you need to, you’re probably just used to covering your soul with a craving.

So what do you need? Time with God! Always time with God.

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? – Psalm 42:1-2