Smoke

Recently around Atlanta we've had smoke...lots of it. About 250 miles south of here is where the South GA fires have been going on. Yesterday was interesting. I'm out of town visiting family, on the lake, and it was interesting to listen to comments made by people on the lake and at church yesterday. "Ah man, whoa, this smoke is awful!" ; "Bummer, kind of puts a damper on Memorial Day weekend." ; "This is really getting to my allergies." ; "Wish it would hurry up and go away."

And at first, I was chiming in as well. It was weird. It was annoying. Looked like something out of the movies. Fog that wouldn't go away. Bothersome.

But as I was driving back from church, I had a thought. I couldn't shake the thought of WHERE this smoke was coming from. Over 250 miles away, this smoke was part of 52 fires that consumed 345,000 acres. People lost a lot. Land. Homes? Property. Crops. Trees. A sense of hopelessness. Nothing you can really do to stop it.

And for a moment, I felt weird (ashamed) for complaining about smoke that was "interfering" with my Memorial Day weekend. Meanwhile, others are piecing things back together.

I think in Christianity we do something similar sometimes. I think this is a picture of what it looks like when we are bothered by the stinch of other people's sin. We complain that it's interfering with our goodness. It's bothersome. Instead of reaching out, we sit in our comfortable chairs in our comfortable homes and shut all the doors and windows...so as to not let the smoke get in. In doing so, we are unknowingly throwing gas on their fires.

I know it's a stretch, but this illustration is the type of thing God uses from time to time to remind me of His compassion and His mercy and His unselfishness...and how we should be the same. Funny how an inconvenience can be a great reminder/lesson. As the GA Governor said in a recent article, "We're just getting a small scent of what they've lived with."