As I was laying in bed at the fire department about a week ago I prayed before I went to sleep asking God to be with me tonight. I often pray this as I may wake up in the middle of the night, having to rush into a dangerous situation and risk my life, or I may have to think quickly in a stressful situation to save someone else's life. This realization makes me have to rely on God because I realize that I can not do it on my own.
As I was laying there I realized I always need to have this same attitude. We all need to have this attitude because it is true. Every moment of every day is a moment that could be your last, or a moment that could throw you into extreme danger where you will have to rely on God and not yourself. The events of this week have further illustrated that point to me. First there was the bombing at the Boston Marathon. The spectators and runners in the race had no idea what would great them at the finish line. It was just a normal day at the races, for many of the runners, one of the more meaningful moments of their lives. Many of the spectators were there to support a runner or just enjoy the day at a prestigious sporting event.
The second is the explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas. How could the workers at the plant have known what would happen. I am willing to bet most of them did not consider their job that dangerous. The explosion took out the surrounding neighborhoods, who were no doubt unsuspecting that anything like this could ever happen. I am guessing some of them didn’t even know they lived near a plant that produced anything that could be this dangerous. Please keep them in your prayers, as the search for survivors is still ongoing, which is made all the harder by the fact that some of the people killed in the explosion were firefighters. ( Little side note here, but we could all spend so much more time in prayer with all that needs prayed for in our world.)
The third case hits home a little more. A Kent high school student died at an AAU basketball practice this week. He was a young healthy man who played on the football team as well. The cause of death has not been released yet. Please be praying for his family and friends, including kids from Riverwood who know him. Now I don’t write all these things to make you scared, but it is a reality how fragile life is, and how we are really safe nowhere, no matter how hard we try to be. I don’t think fear is a good reaction to have especially since the Bible says:Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell -Matt 10:28. Instead we should more fully lean on God, because we can only get through these things with his strength.
Taking this even further we are living in a world at war. This is perhaps even more important to realize then the dangers of the physical world. Every day we are in a dangerous situation because satan is currently ruling this world. If only we were more aware of the spiritual battles around us. We need to lean on God more every day because we really actually need him. I pray that I continue to realize this and do this every moment of every day.
Until next time,
Ben
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