I
remember the first “drill”. The first “tutorial”.
It
remains ingrained in my memory. In
the file reserved for the events of my six-year-old self.
There we
were, standing in a straight line on the “grassy knoll” outside of the front
doors of my elementary school. The
flag billowed behind us with a light breeze.
I stood
next to my first grade best friend, Jeff, and we, along with the rest of our
class, squinted into the sun as we stared at our teacher and the fireman (who,
much to our disappointment, wasn’t dressed in his heavy fire-fighting
gear). There was respectful
silence as we listened to more instructions about fire safety but small gasps
and anxious murmurs were heard as we were informed of an unbelievable and
terrifying reality:
Someday,
I could catch on fire.
My active
imagination pictured my little body ablaze.
My
classmates must not have been very far behind me because, as I recall, we took
the next ten minutes of calisthenics very seriously! Calisthenics resulting from very
specific instructions:
“When you
find yourself on fire, you need to do three things: Stop. Drop. And then Roll. And Keep rolling until the fire is
out!”
Freeze. Down. Roll in the grass. Up.
Shake off the dirt. Do it again. All with military precision. I’m sure we looked like a pile of
puppies out there in the grass by the front doors of the school, but you had to
know – we weren’t about to be found standing doing nothing when we, ourselves
were engulfed in flames!
I
remember taking my new skill home and explaining quite thoroughly how prepared
I was to catch on fire. I
demonstrated my technique and insisted my siblings take part in my
fire-preventing exercise! I
also remember waiting, sometimes in the fear of my dark bedroom (I had some pretty
awesome anxiety issues and fire safety week often did a number on me in terms
of the nightmare department), for the moment I would catch on fire and need to
implement the three life saving steps. I
would repeat them over and over again in my head.
Alright,
so granted, my memory probably remembers the situation more dramatic than the
reality but the intensity of my memory has insisted I’ve never
forgotten. And yet, that memory also serves as the last time I can
actively remember stopping and dropping and rolling…at least in that order for
that purpose.
I grew up
believing “Stop. Drop. Roll.” was going to be a MUCH bigger deal in my
life. At the very least, I
was relatively certain there was going to be higher instance of catching on
fire.
I did sort of catch on fire.
Once. The cuff of my jeans trailed over a still hot coal while at the
barn preparing to teach a class. The
team of instructors at the time (and I!) all started to smell smoke. We went looking for the source. Each room I walked into, I was convinced the
smell was getting stronger, that we must be getting closer. I was mentally deciding whether to grab a
bucket of water now or later in anticipation for rising flames I was surely
about to discover. And then, all of the
sudden, we realized it was me. I was on
fire. My first grade instincts did NOT
kick in. No part of me considered the
need to stop, drop, or roll. Instead we
re-enacted a short version of a tribal dance where I stomped, patted, and
subsequently squelched the burning denim.
My newly exposed ankle wasn’t even a little a hot. Truly catching on fire had been avoided once
more.
Turns out, generally speaking, it is always good to be
prepared for an emergency; important to know what to do and when to enact it,
but emergency preparedness is typically just preparedness.
Turns out, generally speaking, most adults I know can recite
“stop, drop, and roll” and when it should be utilized. Yet, I rarely see groups of adults in front
yards running drills with military precision on the off chance their bodies would
burst into flames. While probably their
own first grade memory will enact if the necessity ever arose, turns out,
generally speaking, most adults I know are completely unconcerned about the
prospect of catching on fire.
Turns out, generally speaking (in my experience*), most
Christians are as well.
A read through the book of Acts and most of the New
Testament would make one think Christians could be bursting in flames with a
much higher instance. I can nearly
envision Peter and Bartholomew and Paul and John and Timothy standing in front
of groups of the curious and confused, the open and the skeptical. I can hear Paul passionately proving the Old
Testament scriptures and how they had been fulfilled in the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. I can hear
Peter admitting his denial and God’s faithfulness in light of his infidelity;
his fervent desire to “feed the sheep”. I can hear John reminding the crowds of
the words Christ has spoken, encouraging each to find him or herself connected
to the Vine, to see Jesus as the way to the Father and the way to life. And I can almost hear the gasp and anxious
murmurs from the crowd as Followers of The Way convey an unbelievable and
terrifying reality:
Those who become followers of Christ will catch on fire.
Perhaps it was never quite communicated in such a way but it
was a known result. The disciples themselves had been anointed with fire at Pentecost, were filled with the Holy Spirit, were commissioned to go forward
teaching and bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the very ends of the
earth. This fire wasn’t only something
they had to prepare for it was undeniable and certain. The Holy Spirit,
promised to every believer as a guarantee of our inheritance, set lives ablaze
in incredible ways.
Christians hear this.
Learn this. Know this. And are mostly unburdened and unconcerned
with catching on fire…
I recently finished reading the book “Forgotten God” by
Francis Chan**. A book which suggests
we’ve forgotten about catching on fire.
More so, we’ve neglected the Holy Spirit. We neither seek to understand what it means
to be anointed with fire or to have lives ablaze by the work of the Holy
Spirit. We are comfortable, complacent,
consumers of spirituality and have forgotten the Spirit lives within us and the
passion and fire of following should makes us cities on hill, the light of the world, those who shine like stars in a crooked and depraved generation. And instead, too often, we’ve smelled the
smoke, experienced just enough of the flames raising to tribal dance stomp that
baby right out…to avoid truly catching on fire.
Confronted with the reality of both our spiritual depravity
and what should be the both terrifying and exciting realization of catching on
fire, I recognize we are still given the opportunity to stop and drop and
roll. Not to put the spark out but
instead to fan it into flames.
Stop. Where we are. What
we are doing. Find ourselves in the
pause; the moment where the spark first takes root. Not being so quick to disregard, to forget,
to carry on without it, but allow it to burn.
Drop.
Everything. Our whole lives. Our whole beings. Our wants.
Our desires. Our passions. Our
fears. It’s hard to faithfully follow when our arms and hearts are full of the
life we are supposed to surrender. Throw off what so easily entangles. Cast burdens on Jesus. Being in tune with the
Spirit is about surrender. Being on fire is about throwing off the bushel which
would otherwise snuff it out.
Roll. Or better yet... Run.
Run with perseverance the race set out for us. It isn’t enough to stop
or drop if we don’t also roll. If we
don’t find ourselves willing to be led to where God would have us at any
moment. Rolling is impossible without
stopping and dropping…as it is not a mindless a pursuit but determined act of
obedience….and requires a trust which knows no borders and no limits.
And then keep rolling.
Rolling because the more we move, the more we follow, the more licks of
fire will touch every person and everything we encounter. To be ablaze with the Holy Spirit is to be
contagious, passionate, moving, active, faithful. To not be found doing nothing when we realize
we’ve caught on fire.
My eyes are squinty, my brain is racing. These are unfinished thoughts as I have
considerations and ideas and ponderings I haven’t quite explored and am still
trying to figure out. Especially as it
relates to my life. My acts of
obedience. My openness and willingness
to put myself aside to be in tune with Father…and what I need to do to really make
the act of “Stop. Drop. Roll” a MUCH bigger deal in my life. To know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that in
doing so there would be a much higher instance of catching the world on fire…
*I realize my experience is limited and not a full or
completely accurate description of the world as a whole.
**I would recommend Forgotten God as a read. Thought
provoking, compelling, and challenging – it very biblically presented a case
for understanding the Holy Spirit and His role in the lives of believers. Regardless of where you “stand”, I think Chan
does a good job of forcing readers to consider how they relate to the Holy
Spirit and why having a relationship with the Spirit is essential…
