Our Search for Security

A cartoon showed a pastor watching a man who was working on the church cornerstone. The worker was chiseling into the cornerstone the name of the pastor. Beneath the cartoon was the caption, “Job Security.”

That’s quite different from the case of a pastor who went out to pastor a small country church. After the church called him as pastor, they had his name painted on a small board and hung from the church sign with two cup hooks. After a couple of years, some tensions developed in the fellowship. The pastor was concerned by what he saw when he arrived for church services one Sunday morning. The sign on which his name had been painted had been removed, and in its place there was a piece of chalkboard with his name written in chalk. He was even more unnerved when he entered the sanctuary for the worship service. Sitting on the front row of the sanctuary was the head deacon who was slowly tossing a chalkboard eraser into the air.

There is a hunger for security in our lives. We take out insurance and put aside money for the future in 401k’s. We invest our money in stocks and bonds, which are called “securities.” It is ironic that nothing is more insecure right now than these investments and “securities.” As I write, leaders are meeting to try to come up with a plan to bring security to our “securities” firms.

Jeanne Moos of CNN did a piece recently in which she talked to people about the current financial crisis. She asked one man about his 401k. He said, “Right now it is a 201k.”

Moos also mentioned the commercial that AIG had been running for the past several months. AIG teetered on the brink of failure, and the government has had to come to its rescue. The commercial shows a small boy coming into his parents’ bedroom in the middle of the night. The boy is worried and begins asking his parents about their insurance, retirement funds, and tax shelters. His dad sleepily says to his son, “Buddy, don’t worry. We’re with AIG.” And Buddy says, “Oh.” If Buddy had only known then what we know now, instead of saying “Oh,” he would have said, “Oh, no.”

What happens when our “securities” become insecure? One of the things that it can do is cause us to look to the One who provides ultimate security in life. Companies change names overnight and move from dispensing security to knocking on the doors of others to ask for security. Our God never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Martin Luther said, “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in the hands of God, I still possess.” The psalmist said, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress” (Ps. 46:1, 11). Now that is real security!