Insecurity and the Word of God
Insecurity, or better stated, the study of it and the label for it, is a relatively recent concept. While it has been around since the fall of humanity, the Bible doesn’t use the word. You won’t find it even in the most contemporary translations. You do find the word secure, but not insecure. What that says to me, is that I need to be careful about reading insecurity into Bible stories where it may not be present. I am certainly aware of our modern tendency to look back with a “reconstructionist” eye, reading present concepts into the writings of ancient authors and using anachronisms to explain problems that didn’t even exist. But I am certain that while many “anxiety disorders” of the 21st century are not found in God’s Word, insecurity has always been there. You can see it in Adam and Eve and their eldest son, Cain. You can see it in Noah and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The list is long. I will endeavor to always be true to the history of interpretation and proper exegesis and hermeneutics, but I also ask for grace when my conclusions don’t agree with yours, because I’m not trying to recreate our understanding of God, but rather to give hope to broken humanity as we trust in the power of God.
What is insecurity? There is not a great amount of scholarly work on insecurity, but the best definition I’ve found comes from Joseph Nowinski, Ph.D. “Insecurity refers to a profound sense of self-doubt – a deep feeling of uncertainty about our basic worth and our place in the world. Insecurity is associated with chronic self-consciousness, along with a chronic lack of confidence in ourselves and anxiety about our relationships. The insecure man or woman lives in constant fear of rejection and a deep uncertainty about whether his or her own feelings and desires are legitimate.” While most people have insecurities, not everyone is “dysfunctionally” insecure. What I mean is, there are those whose insecurities debilitate and destroy relationships, undermine self-esteem, and sabotage happiness and life success and that is a serious “illness” like heart disease or cancer. Most of us have something more like a low-grade fever or a persistent cough. It’s not deadly, but it certainly is annoying. These blogs are not the “cure for cancer,” but, I hope, they will alleviate that pesky self-doubt by setting our eyes on the only true source of security in the universe – the amazing grace of God.
