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Safety First

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8



A few days ago I read from Wendell Berry about the instinctual well-being of animals. They do not have as thick a shielding as we in pursuing vanity, and most of their thrust is pursuant of survival. As such, their is something to learn from their elemental behavior. I was most impressed by Berry's observation of the manner in which animals exhibit peace. They thoroughly relish it. I picture a  meerkat napping. They are ever exposed, yet they know to fully relish safety when it exists. They quickly rise to attention, to alertness, when peril comes. 

There are a couple of early detected differences between us and the meerkat. One is that they pursue profound safety. They can rest heartily because they have the companionship of their peers, who are jointly invested in survival. We live in a much more perilous time, where we must go into scenes that are not peaceful. Usually this discord is psychological, but it is agonizing for us. And in response, we seek a fictive peace, one removed from the harshness of reality. I suppose in that way, we are not much different from the animals, yet I think the way in which we differ is that we put walls up in our minds to the reality of discord and disharmony, pretending it doesn't exist from the comfort of our removed settings. And it is that very divorced sense of faculties that disallows us from being alert and sober when necessary, which is my second point. Our large brains are able to create alternate realities. And when confronted with a reality we don't like, we are able to select from a few options before making a decision as the reality that we like best. This means that we are often experiencing a different reality from our peers, making communication, and thus survival, all the more difficult. 

May we learn from the mighty meerkats who communicate safety without words. 

Heavenly Father, I am guilty of wanting reality to be a certain thing. May I merely exist in the reality I find myself in, they one in which You have placed me. Further, may I make decisions based in Your Kingdom reality, ones that bring peace and safety. However, help me to be aware and responsive to the alterable positions of those two things. 

In Jesus Name,

Amen

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