Our Security

With all that has happened the last month, I’ve been thinking a lot about hope. Hope has taken on new meaning for me—I’ve experienced it in new ways and learned for myself what a life-line hope is. A long time ago I wrote about hope here on my blog (“The Golden Cord of Hope,” March 10, 2008) and how one of the Hebrew words for hope also means cord. The idea behind the dual meaning is that our hope is what we are tied to. If we think that if we have enough money we will always be safe and secure, our hope is in wealth. If we think that if we have a lot of friends or followers they will keep us safe, our hope is in popularity. If we think that if we know enough we will always be able to deal with every situation and therefore we will be safe, our hope is in intelligence or academic degrees.

These are just a few of the hundreds of things we mortals “tie” ourselves to in our quest to be safe and secure. But to fully understand the ramifications of hope we need to look at the meanings of the words safe and secure.

The English words safe and save both come from the Latin word salvus which also gave us the word salvation. The three words are related and are all about being safe which means not exposed to the threat of loss or injury. The word secure is formed from the Latin prefix se- which means “without” and the word cura which means “care or worry.” So being secure is to be without worries and to be safe or saved is to be without threats, loss, or injury. Sounds good, doesn’t it? That is what everyone hope for.

But there is only one source to that kind of salvation—Jesus Christ. There is nothing wrong with money, popularity, and intelligence or other such things. We can use them to do much good. But if we are seeking them to provide safety and security, they are false salvation systems. True hope, true safety, true security only comes through Jesus Christ. In other words, safety only comes by “tying” ourselves to Him.