One of the most powerf
ul and lasting influences on my life since becoming a Christian in college was C.S. Lewis’ insight that God is good, but He is not necessarily “safe”. This principle has become increasingly important as our culture has redefined both of those adjectives.
Our cultural god is “good” (he gives us what we want, when we want it) and “safe” (he otherwise doesn’t really bother us). Those qualities become our weapons to attack him when things don’t go our way (“How could a good god …?” or “The god I serve would never ….”). Our cultural god’s goodness is defined by how safe (or tame) he is, and by extension, how he keeps us safe (comfortable, not inconvenienced, affluent).
But Lewis reminds us that God is good on His own terms (which can be quite uncomfortable for us). And He is not safe (if safety is defined by our risk-free and problem-free life).
Getting to know this God who is good but not safe is the process of growing in Christian maturity. This web site is an opportunity for me to express some of my experience in that process. Not every article on the GoodNotSafe site relates directly to that theme, but almost all of them grow from that root.