Recently I was redirected off Hwy 157 because of a fire. On a return trip I found out what was burning… THE DANVILLE FIRE STATION! See picture to the right… Click to enlarge.

Of all places I wouldn’t expect a fire to get out of control and close down a business it is a fire station! How does that happen? They were trained to extinguish fires. They were trained to be careful so as to not start fires. They were trusted to protect a community from fire, but they couldn’t protect their own fire station? Now the fire/rescue station is closed… due to fire!

Hmmm…

Of all the people who should be forgiving it is Christians… but are we? Christians should be merciful, gracious, and compassionate… are we? Believers in Christ should be the epitome of faith, hope, and perseverance… but is it true of us? When it comes to love, certainly Christians exemplify it… but that isn’t always true is it?

Okay… so a fire/rescue station is unusable for a while because of a failure. But Christian’s actions (Or failures) have eternal consequences. A building and things can be replaced. But if a Christian’s failure causes someone to stumble away from Jesus, the consequence is eternal in scope. We can snicker at a fire station burning, but it isn’t a laughing matter for a soul to consider Christ unworthy because of His followers failure.

Maybe Christians should be more diligent regarding love, forgiveness, grace, mercy, and compassion toward others. Maybe then our lives would make our words believable. Maybe then people would be drawn to Christ by our actions rather than repelled by the Gospel.