Sermon illustration

Thursday is laundry day.
When we were living in a village in England, three miles from my parents, I would take my laundry to use my Mum's machine on Thursdays. In Wellington, South Africa I take my laundry to Cheryl in the local Washerie every Thursday.
Last week I was walking along carrying my bin bag of dirty washing, looking hopefully into the garden where at separate times I've seen a tortoise, chicks and a white peacock, when, on the other side of the road, I noticed workmen on the roof of a building which belongs to the University of Cape Town. The roof was obviously in need of repair: one man was waist deep in a hole, others were standing on the slope, waiting to see what needed to be done. All of them wore bright yellow body harnesses, a good thing to have on the roof of a two storey building; the trouble was that their harnesses weren't connected to anything. It would've been relatively easy to attach each man to a safety rope but they wandered freely about the roof, obeying the letter of the law by having the harnesses but experiencing none of the benefits.
Perhaps being married to someone who's often had to give a children's address in church makes me aware of possible illustrations but I couldn't help thinking how symptomatic the men on the roof were of the way so many people live. They provide themselves with the trappings of safety - insurance, pension, church attendance - but don't actually attach to the only one who can assure us of safety (an exciting ride maybe, but ultimately the only security there is).
Putting on a harness isn't enough: you have to make sure it's attached to something safe, then the security of your anchor means you can roam wide without fear.