Health and (much less) Safety

In a famous section of the Chronicles of Narnia Lucy asks Mr Beaver about Aslan. 

"Is.. is he a man?" asked Lucy.

"Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of the Beasts? Aslan is a lion - the Lion, the great Lion."

"Ooh," said Susan, "I thought he was a man. Is he.. quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."

"That you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else silly."

"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.

"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver, "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

Erwin McManus might have been reading that before the following interaction with his young son, who had just returned from a week at a Christian children’s camp;

He writes, ‘Unfortunately, since it was a Christian camp and they didn't tell ghost stories, because we don't believe in ghosts; they told demon and Satan stories instead. And so when Aaron got home, he was terrified.

"Dad, don't turn off the light!" he said before going to bed. "No, Daddy, could you stay here with me? Daddy, I'm afraid. They told all these stories about demons."

And I wanted to say, "They're not real."

He goes, "Daddy, Daddy, would you pray for me that I would be safe?" I could feel it. I could feel warm-blanket Christianity beginning to wrap around him, a life of safety, safety, safety.

I said, "Aaron, I will not pray for you to be safe. I will pray that God will make you dangerous, so dangerous that demons will flee when you enter the room."

And he goes, "All right. But pray I would be really, really dangerous, Daddy."’

Beset, as we are, by a culture of risk removal and social diffidence it is time to break free with the Lion!  The Lion said, ‘Take up your cross and follow me”.  And his followers were said to be “Turning the world upside down”.   Try risk assessing those statements!

Our buildings and activities can be made safe, but our faith can never be.