Is it safe? This is the question more and more missions groups and others are continually asking us. Is it safe? More specifically they ask - is it safe to come to Mexico? This is a complicated question. Recently my parents decided to come and visit us in the month of May and I thought long and hard if I wanted them to actually come. Do I want to explain all this to them? How could I tell them about what I've seen in the last six years living in Latin America? People stabbed to death - one murdered right on our doorstep - gang members breaking into our house at night while we slept - a thousand dangers, close calls, brushes against the angel of death's cold wings - and yet here we still are. Not one hair on my head or my family's has been harmed. I've walked through the valley of maras and looked them straight in the face; I watched as a cold blooded killer rescued my son from drowning, and even had dinner with him another time. He saved my son but how many people has he gunned down? How could anyone who hasn't been here understand how we've redefined safety?
"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty." - Psalm 91:1
Armed men in SUVs drive around carrying out hits. The army patrols sweep through town and sometimes there are ambushes and they have firefights. Grenades were thrown into a peaceful crowd last September celebrating Independence Day. Schoolchildren regularly encounter corpses, headless and hands bound, on their way to school. This is normal. This is our life now. But is it safe?
"I will say to the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.' Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence." - Psalm 91:2,3
Recently we bought some chicks. They're vulnerable little things that go about peeping and pecking at the ground all day. There are a thousand predators running around that could make a quick meal out of them. Yet they roam around our front yard confidently knowing we're watching over them. But are they safe? If their mother were around she would protect them. The Bible uses this as a fitting illustration:
"He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart." - Psalm 91:4
This is a beautiful picture and carries a powerful truth: we are not alone. We are protected. The Psalm continues to say that the Most High will command his angels to guard us. Curiously, a few verses later, it says: "I will be with him in trouble." It doesn't say "I will keep my servant out of trouble." Now I think I'm beginning to understand the difference. Perhaps true "safety" resides in the midst of trouble.
So...is it safe? I still don't know how to answer that question. Like I said...it's complicated. Last week in Laredo an agent of the U.S. Border Patrol asked me point blank why we haven't left Mexico for the safety of the U.S. Would he understand my version of safety? I didn't even really try and explain why. Why do we live in the midst of so much violence? Are we trapped here? Perhaps, after all, it's not so much that we're trapped in Mexico with the likes of vicious killers, drug lords, and assassins. No...
Perhaps they're trapped here with us.
"You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent."
- Psalm 91:13
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