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Firefighters are some of the most brave and self-sacrificing people on planet earth. For the sake of buildings, homes, people and their treasures, they ransom the only bodies they possess. They lose sleep, suffer hunger and thirst; parch, bruise, and roast their own flesh in the fire of honor and duty.
What makes them do it? I have often wondered what driving force can make a man or woman leave their comfort zone to do battle in a long exhausting war against fire destruction. What makes them elect as their own the battlefield of such "dis"-comfort?
My only conclusion has been
that along with the satisfaction they must feel in gratitude they receive from those they rescue, theirs must be a special calling. For they give that most precious of gifts that Jesus spoke about when He said, “Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.”
And firefighters lay down theirs even for strangers.
But the parallel that comes to mind, not a new one, is that of the spiritual firefighter. Spiritual firefighters such as missionaries are, also lay it all down; they too are known for their courage, self-sacrifice, and lives of hardship.
Yet missionaries differ from common firefighters in their overall, long-range objective. While an earthly firefighter risks what he or she can see, for the same; a kingdom firefighter hazards for that which he or she cannot see. One for the transitory, the other for the eternal.
And why, again, do they do it? It too is for love’s sake, but it is a different kind of love, more than marginally greater than mere humans can drum up. For it is that which flows down from above from the Father of Lights. The All Consuming Fire, the One whom no firefighter can ever extinguish sends His agape love.
And not just for the front-line kingdom firefighters and those to whom they minister does He give it. It is a power sent for the backup gladiators, warring on their knees in the home trench.
I pray that we are.
"That honor, we ask Lord, You may grant us. May the All-Consuming One light a good fire in us - and may He keep it ever burning."
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