Facing Fear
In church as of late, we are in the midst of a pastoral series called Fearless. I am enjoying this series because so far we have been able to study the Biblical story of David and Goliath and also the story of Moses and the Parting of the Red Sea – two stories I’ve certainly heard about, but hadn’t heard the details or about how they relate to modern-day Christianity until now. Last Sunday at church, our pastor told of an amusing story during his Fearless series, and I thought I’d share it. Also in this service, the band accompanied an amazing Bossa Nova / Spanish-style vocal duet unlike anything I’ve seen in church so far – it was awesome! I can’t reproduce the song unfortunately, but here is a summary of the pastor’s fun story:
A beautiful village nestled on the bottom of a valley erupted in flames. All of the surrounding villages’ fire engines came to fight the fire, but they all stopped at the top of the hill on the road leading to the burning village in the valley, for they figured the village would not be savable and would only pose a danger to their own firefighters. A rickety old fire truck soon showed up from a distant town, and it didn’t hesitate as it crested the hill and rode straight into the valley to fight the fire. The fire was extinguished, the village saved, and there was a grand ceremony of celebration. When the fearless fire department who put out the fire rose to accept their rewards and thanks, the fire chief took the stage. The mayor of the saved village asked him, “What are you going to do with your rewards and with your thank-you money?” The fire chief of that heroic fire department who fearlessly rode down the hill to save the neighboring town said, “The first thing we are going to do is to fix the brakes on that fire truck!”
The moral of the story? Here’s my take: The “fearless” fire-fighters didn’t even mean to go into the fire to fight it… But they did just that, and once they got down in the valley accidentally (because of the failed brakes on the fire truck), they faced their fears and conquered that fire, even though they didn’t originally intend to and also despite their fears.
The story tied in nicely with our church’s Fearless series. And our pastor told us that story, I think, to get our attention and to get us thinking… And that it did.
