About the Title, Floods, and MLK Jr.

So, why did I choose the title “Walking Through Fire”? Certainly not because it’s some heroic thing firefighters do. No, usually we are very unheroically digging in the dirt. I chose the title from Isaiah 43:2.  

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched,
Nor will the flame burn you. (NASB)

God is speaking here to the Israelites who are being persecuted. He is reminding them that he has promised redemption, and he will not leave them. I think this is an appropriate passage for us today. I have often thought we are very much like the Israelites. God has promised us the best things, as long as we do some things in return. Chief among these is loving God, and loving your neighbor. This is the Ten Commandments in a nutshell. However, like the biblical people of Israel, we choose to not uphold our end of the deal. And here we are today.

When we were helping out with the flooding this spring we came to a woman’s house, right in the worst part of the floodwaters. We waded over to her house and we could see the basement was completely full of water. It was certainly the worst house we saw that day. We started to put a plan in motion to begin sandbagging and pumping the water out of her basement. She just looked at us and said, “It’s ok, it’s too late for my house. Take those and help my neighbors.” It was pretty neat, what she did. The whole flood experience was really something. We stood alongside old and young, high school and college sports teams, volunteer firefighters. Nobody complained, we just looked at each other and knew we were doing something special. We were probably the only people there getting paid. Even this had a limit. After the first day we were told we would get no compensation for the hours we worked after five o’clock. Fine, we said. We went back out for two more days and worked as long as we were needed. We didn’t complain; we just helped. It was a situation where we just did the work because people needed help. It’s amazing, but those devastating situations bring out the best in people. In a time of what often seems like widespread despair, it was really a moment of hope.

I am reminded of what Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others endured in the fifties and sixties in the U.S. Do you know how they overcame their persecution? They joined together, bonded by a common struggle and a common goal, and, using the same nonviolent resistance utilized by Gandhi against the British in India, they bought their freedom from oppression. They didn’t war against their country; they didn’t sit in their houses and complain; they acted. What’s the point? If we are not happy with our condition, or the way things are, all we have to do is act. I realize this is very different than a flood, but the point is the same: People in times of hardship or persecution can accomplish whatever they want to.

If you never have, even if you have before, I encourage you to read some Martin Luther King, Jr. Read I Have a Dream, read his Letter From a Birmingham Jail, read I See the Promised Land, the speech he gave the day before he was killed.

Ok, so I may have rambled a little, but I will leave you with a quote:

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Mahatma Gandhi