From Doctor Who: The Eleventh Hour
(The Atraxi is hovering overhead.)
AMY: So this was a good idea, was it? They were leaving.
DOCTOR: Leaving is good. Never coming back is better. Come on, then! The Doctor will see you now.
(The eyeball drops onto the roof and scans the Doctor.)
ATRAXI: You are not of this world.
DOCTOR: No, but I’ve put a lot of work into it.
(He looks at his selection of ties.)
DOCTOR: Oh, hmm, I don’t know. What do you think?
ATRAXI: Is this world important?
DOCTOR: Important? What’s that mean, important? Six billion people live here. Is that important? Here’s a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi? Well, come on. You’re monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?
(There is a projection of the world between them.)
ATRAXI: No.
DOCTOR: Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?
ATRAXI: No.
DOCTOR: Okay. One more. Just one. Is this world protected? Because you’re not the first lot to come here. Oh, there have been so many.
(The projection shows the Daleks et al.)
DOCTOR: And what you’ve got to ask is, what happened to them?
(A run through of all the previous Doctors, then this Doctor steps through the projection with a jacket and bow tie.)
DOCTOR: Hello. I’m the Doctor. Basically, run.
**********
One of my favorite themes in Doctor Who is the “This Planet is Defended” theme. With panache and charisma The Doctor devises ingenious ways to protect the inhabitants of earth from overwhelming forces of evil and destruction. And when any of these forces interfere with his protected people they face his immediate wrath. I love this theme, because it reinforces some of the lessons I am learning about my Heavenly Father (who seems to need to rescue me rather too frequently).

The last few years have been spiritually challenging. Wonderful, yes. But difficult. It is unnerving to be faced with the fact that not only are the voices around you unreliable, your own is as well. Your mind and your emotions will deceive you.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick [wicked, incurable]; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9

It is one thing to understand that “How firm a foundation ye saint of The Lord/ Is laid for your faith in his excellent Word.” It is another to experience the shifting sand and become one of those that “to Jesus for refuge has fled.” (Fleeing to Christ doesn’t stop at Salvation!)

Spiritually, the world is a scary place. It’s full of dangers without and within. But you, if God is your father, have, blazoned across your soul for every principality, power, and ruler of this world “This soul is defended.” The demands on you are comparatively low — stay close (don’t wander off) and when He says “run,” run!

I run to Christ when vexed by hell
And find a mighty arm.
“The Devil flees,” the Scriptures tell;
He roars, but cannot harm.

I run to Christ when stalked by sin
And find a sure escape.
“Deliver me,” I cry to Him;
Temptation yields to grace.

I run to Christ when plagued by shame
And find my one defense.
“I bore God’s wrath,” He pleads my case—
My Advocate and Friend. (C. Anderson)

And be assured that when we wander off (and we will) that our Savior is just that — a savior! (Salvation doesn’t stop at Salvation!) There is nothing that we can “throw at him” that is unexpected or beyond his power to deal with. There is no trick our mind or heart can play that he cannot counter, no attack of Satan against which he cannot defend, and no lie of the world that he cannot expose.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

So be at peace. Be confident — not in yourself, but in the power of your great Savior to defend and protect your heart and mind.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.