Kelsey Sederstrom, Staff Writer

“It’s so beautiful here,” said Beatrice De Graaf as she stepped on the stage Monday morning. “Dutch people have never had a reason to come to the center of the United States, but it’s quite beautiful!”

Speaking with a thick Dutch accent, De Graaf addressed the topic of security, presenting the audience with the question, “What are we afraid of?”

De Graaf’s speech began with a history of security, starting with Charlemagne protecting his people from drought and ending with modern times when the United Nations seeks to prevent another world war.

She defined security as both a feeling and an absence of harm.  Most especially, she correlated security with protection from future events. According to De Graaf, security is not just a present state. It is most importantly what we want our future to be.

The core of De Graaf’s speech addressed how man fails to control the future. National security is virtually useless, because as individual opportunity grows, so also uncertainty increases.

De Graaf says that American culture and media are geared towards looking at destruction because they know it is what concerns us the most.  Man knows his fatality. De Graaf sparks the question, where do we turn in our search for hope of protection? Ourselves? The government?

As Reformed Christians, De Graaf says we know that our security is not physical, but spiritual and moral. We find spiritual peace in Christ, our shepherd, LORD, and king.  Whom then shall we fear? Nothing can stand against Christ; our sole comfort in life and death.

“Christ is our security,” seemed to be the constant theme throughout De Graaf’s speech.