He Isn’t Safe — But He Is Good
Learning to Trust the Lion Who Loves You
When We Mistake Comfort for Safety
There’s a moment in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when Susan, hearing about Aslan for the first time, asks:
“Is he—quite safe?”
And Mr. Beaver, with holy mischief in his voice, answers:
“Safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
Every time I read that line, something in me rises.
Because it names a truth about God we spend most of our lives trying to avoid:
We want a safe God.
He offers us a Good one.
Safety is predictable.
Goodness is transformative.
Safety protects our illusions.
Goodness dismantles them.
Safety keeps us in control.
Goodness invites us into surrender.
And that tension — not safe, but good — is precisely where real trust is born.
Goodness That Refuses to Be Tamed
We long for a God who confirms our assumptions,
fits our expectations,
and comforts our routines.
But Love Himself refuses to be domesticated.
The Lion of Judah doesn’t enter our lives to rubber-stamp our carefully arranged identities.
He comes to rewrite them — with fire, tenderness, and truth.
His goodness will unsettle you.
It will go after the fear you’ve made peace with.
It will expose the agreements you didn’t know you made.
It will lovingly dismantle the tiny fortresses of self-protection you’ve built around your heart.
Not to harm you…but to free you.
Because He knows you cannot live fully alive and half-hidden.
You cannot walk in destiny while clinging to control.
You cannot experience Love while protecting yourself from it.
Jesus is not safe for your illusions.
But He is endlessly safe to your soul.
The Good King Who Walks With You
When you walk with Him, you’re not promised comfort —
You’re promised transformation.
You’re not promised predictability —
You’re promised Presence.
You’re not promised ease —
You’re promised the King who walks the road with you,
who calls you by name, who refuses to leave you as He found you.
This is the wild goodness of God.
Goodness fierce enough to fight for you,
patient enough to form you,
gentle enough to restore you,
holy enough to change what you could never fix.
And the longer you walk with Him, the more you see:
The places that feel dangerous to your control
are the places most saturated with His love.
The places you fear losing yourself are the places He intends to give you back— whole, healed, and free.
Reflection
Where might you be wanting a “safe” version of Jesus instead of the true, transforming King?
What part of your heart is He inviting out of hiding and into trust today?
Where is His goodness calling you to surrender something you’ve been trying to manage?
Prayer