Fighting Fires Without Fear

The other night I watched Extreme Makeover Home Edition. In this episode a new house was awarded to a woman who serves as a volunteer firefighter in her community of Bastrop, Texas. While for 27 days she fought the huge fires which destroyed 34,000 acres in Texas in 2011 (the state's largest fire on record), her own home was burned to the ground.

During the episode, Mizzy Zdroj, the volunteer firefighter, proved to be a woman of courage, conviction, and self-sacrifice. While we don't know much about her besides her love for family, community, and the forest, we do know that she steadfastly stayed in the firefighting battle of her life, even while her own family suffered great loss. Fear and self-preservation did not keep her from doing the right thing.

As a pastor's wife, I am all too familiar with the frequent brushfires which are common to most local congregations. And I don't call them brushfires to minimize these problems, emergencies or conflicts. At the root of these unexpected flare-ups there are often truly devastating dilemmas. But I call them brushfires because, even as very real tactics of the enemy, they keep the church from focusing on the task at hand: spreading the gospel and discipling believers.

Of course I'm also familiar with the brushfires Satan uses to sabotage our families, our marriages, our jobs, our community. Just when we think we have everything lined up in some semblance of order so we can make some forward progress in our relationships, our finances, our life goals, we encounter a small fire which, left unattended, has the potential of great harm and destruction. We have no choice. Once again we have to turn our attention away from the intrinsically important to address the unexpected urgent.

Ok, so we all get that.

But here's the issue at hand. When you do have to fight a fire--in your family life, in your church, at work, in your community--with what attitude do you fight it? Do you face it head on with fearless determination, like Mizzy Zdroj in Bastrop, Texas? Or do you actually fan it into greater strength out of frustration and untamed fear?

What do we fear in such instances? What kind of fear am I alluding to?

Really, all of these fears sound vain, silly and unfounded when you list them like this. But in the middle of our personal battles, our own brushfires, when we have much on the line, these fears seem very valid and worthy of our consideration.


But the Bible says in 2 Timothy 1:7 that our spirit of fear is not from God; He gives us power, love, and a sound mind with which to battle the oppositions in life. Why is that important to remember?

Because if you try to fight your battles, put out your fires, with fear, you stand the risk of fighting them ineffectively. You may get the fire put out eventually, but your fear will cause you to make tactical decisions that result in more destruction along the way.

Fear is not a tool of the firefighter; it is a hindrance. But it's also a hindrance when we're trying to fight the brushfires of life. Consider fear in the context of your latest brushfire, whatever it may be.
Mizzy Zdroj fought the brushfires and then the grandest fire of all with power and uncommon strength, love for her community, and a sound and focused mind. Yes, initially that fight cost her the house her family called home. But in the end, as is almost always the case, her bravery and focus won her so much more: not just a new home built for a television show, but the adoration and appreciation of her community and the respect of her children.

What fires are you fighting today? Think of one; I know you have a few. Now, in the context of that fire, are you allowing fear to determine your course of action? Or have you resisted fear and instead picked up the weapons handed you by your Chief: power, love and a sound mind? 

I encourage you to resist fear as a weapon of the enemy and instead put out those fires with the holy weapons of an uncommon power, an agape love, and a sound mind firmly focused on truth. 

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