JUNE 6, 2005

FAIL–SAFE
by Pastor George Van Alstine

The 1964 movie “Fail-Safe” was based on strategies developed during the Cold War to prevent an accidental nuclear holocaust. The Strategic Air Command had designed systems that would back up other systems in case of failure. These included very detailed procedures to be followed by personnel in their decision-making during a time of crisis. The drama of the movie was built around an imagined incident in which technical malfunctions caused all the backup systems to give wrong information and send the pilots of B-58 bombers on a straight line to drop nuclear bombs on Moscow. This would mean the beginning of World War III. (You’ll have to rent the movie to find out how it ends.)

Essentially, a fail-safe device or strategy is designed so that if it fails it will cause little or no harm and will stop a dangerous process from going farther.

The movie has stayed in the imagination of those who saw it in the 60's, and the fail-safe idea has found its way into many other applications. An Internet search on the word “fail-safe” shows that it is used to describe all sorts of situations where security is an issue. Here are some of the companies and programs that are listed (with variations between “fail-safe,” “failsafe,” “fail safe,” “FAILsafe,” etc., for copyright reasons):

• Fail-Safe Lighting Products – Security systems for Correctional institutions
• Fail Safe Air Safety Systems – Bioterrorism response and infectious disease control
• Failsafe Media Co. – CD and DVD duplication
• Fail Safe PCR System – Accurate processing of DNA samples
• The Failsafe Diet – A diet featuring low chemical additives
• FAILSAFE for Windows – Computer backup and restoration
• Failsafe Software Development Inc. – Business support software
• Fail Safe Technology Liability – Professional liability insurance
• Fail Safe Designs – Control of e-mail access
• Failsafe Nation – A rock group in Trenton NJ
• Failsafe Records – New Zealand recording company
• “Failsafe” – Star Trek episode #40

And, inevitably, there is a recent political usage of the word. Since Republicans described doing away with the Senate filibuster as “The Nuclear Option,” some Democrats have begun to talk about the importance of saving the filibuster as “The Failsafe Option.”

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Fail-safe has a very important application in our spiritual journey through life. We all move ahead with the understanding that there is something we can fall back on—a skill learned early in life, a secret bank account, a familiar neighborhood. Probably, the most universal fail-safe that people can count on is their family. When everyone else turns against you, you can almost always count on your family to take you in.

Almost always—but even family can fail if the pressure is great enough. This is acknowledged in a wonderful Psalm of assurance:
“If my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up.” (Psalm 27:10)
Ultimately, God is the only true fail-safe protection in life. He will be there under every circumstance.

I knew a man who had been an influential pastor and powerful preacher, but his health entirely collapsed when he was in his 50s. He was a shell of his former self. He confided something to me I will never forget: “All through my ministry, I’ve been preaching ‘Underneath are the everlasting arms’" (Deuteronomy 33:27). But I never had to depend completely on God’s arms because I had so many other support systems. One by one, these have been taken away from me. Now I know what that verse means! I have fallen into his arms and he holds me tight.”

All those fail-safe devices, programs and companies on the Internet have one thing in common—they fail!

There is only one true fail-safe position:
“Jesus never fails.”