Audio Transcript

We’re back with hip-hop artist, and our good friend, Trip Lee. Trip you recently tweeted this: “Insecurity only exists when we try to find security in self. Finding hope in a God who never disappoints can only make you feel MORE secure.” Explain that. How does our mistaken self-sufficiency feed our personal insecurities?

Well, I tweeted that that particular morning, because that is what I was feeling in my heart. I was feeling somewhat insecure. To be honest, I don’t even remember what it was about, but it became really clear to me very quickly that it was because I was looking to myself. I wasn’t good enough or strong enough to make things happen the way I wanted them to.

Not in Me

I can think of many times that I feel like that. And I needed the reminding that moment that my security shouldn’t be in my goodness or my strength anyway. So I am going to look at myself sometimes and think: You know what? I am not strong enough, or I am not good enough, or I am not great enough in my job, or I am not the best rapper of all time, or I am not as good an author as John Piper. I am not this or that. But if I looked to those things for my security, then I am setting myself up to be insecure every day for the rest of my life.

So, of course, I’d feel unsafe if I was on a flight and my safety depended on my knowledge of how to fly a plane. Of course, I would feel unsafe. I don’t know anything about flying a plane. I don’t have the power to do that. But I am not the pilot, you know? So I can feel safe when I am in a plane because it is in the pilot’s hand, and he is trained. And so when I think about my life, you know what? I am not sovereign. I am not all-knowing. The Lord hasn’t perfected me yet. But God is. Christ is. And that is where I am finding my security.

So when I look at myself, I am going to disappoint. I am going to fall short sometimes. I am going to even go back on things that I said, and I am going to have room for lots of growth. And so when I try to find hope there, I will be constantly disappointed.

Desperate Need

But if I look to God and try to find hope in him, well, I am never going to be disappointed, because every day, I am going to wake up and there are going to be new mercies waiting for me. And every day when I pray, I am going to know I had this advocate in Christ that intercedes between me and God. And I am going to know that in my future, God is going to wipe away every tear from my eyes. And I am going to read Scripture, and I am going to see him being faithful to his people over and over again, going for his people in battle and sending Jesus and just goodness and strength and sovereignty on display.

And the more I look to that God, the more I am going to feel more and more secure, the more I am going to feel safer. So God is sovereign and all-knowing and strong, and that is where real hope and peace is going to come from. It really can’t be moved, because God can’t be moved.

What I find interesting is that you woke up, you felt the insecurity, and you had the instinct to know it was a mistaken understanding of the goodness of God.

Absolutely. Because I know when I feel that way that that is kind of my heart rising up. And that is why I need to go to Scripture every single day. I am going to wake up like that so often, and that is why I desperately, desperately need Scripture to correct me in that every day.