The Danger of Over-Protection

We live in a fearful world. The media and the entertainment industry feed that fear by focusing on crime, injustice, and pain more than on any goodness that might remain in the chaos of our shrinking world. Those of us who are "in the world but not of it" must struggle to maintain a positive and hopeful outlook in the midst of what occurs around us.

The response of many to the pervasive fear in our world today is often to become protective, and I dare say over-protective. We wish to protect our children, our property, our careers, our beliefs, and even ourselves from other people and their bad intentions. In an effort to protect what we perceive as "ours", we can isolate ourselves and our children from the outside world and thus maintain a false feeling of safety at least within our own families, our own homes, our controlled environment.

I submit that this is quite a dangerous prospect, and is ultimately not the healthiest way for humans to live. The fact is that we need other humans, both for social interaction and for support in times of trial and need. We also need to feel needed by others. Studies have shown that people with a wide base of support and involvement in society are happier and live longer.

Even apart from the need for sharing our lives with others, there is inherent danger in isolation due to the risk of misplacing our trust. This is perhaps the biggest issue with a fear-based outlook leading to over-protectiveness. Are we trusting in our government to protect us? Are we trusting law enforcement to protect us? Are we trusting our families or parents to protect us? Are we trusting in ourselves? In our weapons? In our escape tactics? In our knowledge and intellect? In our money? (I can not help but want to laugh out loud at these prospects...)

NONE of the entities listed above are trustworthy. I pray that this does not come as a shock to anyone reading this. Every single person, organization, tactic, and physical quality WILL let us down. It has been proven over the ages too many times to require mention. There is ONE trustworthy being in all of the universe, and ONE only. That is God, the Almighty, the Creator of everything, and He who knows the future. Only He is trustworthy and we must learn to put all of our trust in Him alone, for ONLY HE can protect us! He is above all...

Does putting our trust in God alone mean that we will no longer experience any suffering? Certainly not. He himself has told us that we will suffer in this world, especially if we openly confess our faith in Him. But ultimately, in the end, in the long run and in the only world that matters - we'll be with Him, we'll be safe, and we'll be happy. On that we can depend.