October 19, 2008

Late Thursday evening the details were a little clearer. A stray bullet fired from a suspected hunting rifle struck the leg of a seventh grade football player practicing at the Bray-Doyle football field. The incident cause the entire school to go on “lock-down” as teachers and administrators determined the exact threat to the school. In an unrelated story, national news channels reported a school shooting at the University of Central Arkansas earlier this morning (Monday).   

 

Stories like this can easily cause us to respond with fear and concern for the safety or our students. It can also cause us to become more paranoid with the state of our society. Compounded with deep concerns over the financial markets, investment performances, retirement plans and businesses bottom lines, unemployment, a weak housing market, escalating inflation, and a giant meteor that will destroy the earth in 2025, we get a bleak scenario of our ability create lasting protection and security. 

 

Sharing with a group gathered for Sunday School this week, I pondered the fact of when we started selling insurance policies as common practice. Insurance remains a common form of risk management as to hedge against a multitude of losses and calamities. We buy health insurance to cover our physical illnesses. We buy car insurance to cover loss from an accident. We by life insurance so that family members are provided for in the event of an untimely death. In most case, we purchase these things not for fear that they might happen, but instead we want to be covered when they do happen. We would rather someone else take the financial hit when catastrophe or devastating loss occurs.

 

In many ways, much of our life is spent minimizing our risk. Come to find out, this is nothing new. The ancient Babylonians developed a system which was recorded in the famous Code of Hammurabi, 1750 BC, and practiced by early Mediterranean sailing merchants. If a merchant received a loan to fund his shipment, he would pay the lender an additional sum in exchange for the lender's guarantee to cancel the loan should the shipment be stolen. Insurance as we know it today can be traced to the Great Fire of London, which in 1666 devoured 13,200 houses. In the aftermath of this disaster, Nicholas Barbon opened an office to insure buildings. In 1680, he established England's first fire insurance company, "The Fire Office," to insure brick and frame homes. (source: Wikipedia, insurance)

 

Some people have called going to church another form of insurance purchase, fire insurance that is. The thought of spending all of eternity in the raging pits of Hell prompted many people to purchase God’s fire insurance. While eternal security might incorporate a portion of that, God’s desire of offering insurance was to draw people closer to Him, not to hedge their eternal risk. While the Bible is pretty direct concerning the realities of Hell, or eternal punishment, our motivation for church lies on everlasting grace and Christ’s love for us and our love for Him.   

 

1 John 4:16b-18 says, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

 

We cannot remove all of life’s risks. However, we can appreciate the assurance provide through a daily walk with our Lord, Jesus Christ. And remember, His policies never expire.

 

I look forward to seeing you in the assurance place on Sunday.

 

Travis