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.
