Fire Walker

Yesterday was a “white out.” It’s April. It was a full blown blizzard. Visibility was next to nothing. To a guy from Texas, this was incredible. I have never seen snow blow sideways. I can’t believe I traversed the roads to go to work, but I guess its Colorado and you know the saying, “when in Rome…” The roads were crazy. I left the house early. I started out before the sand trucks with the snow plows cleared the roads.

In front of me, I had a little old lady driving somewhere between 4 and 9 mph going up and down some extremely steep hills. She had a four wheel drive, I didn’t. I finally figured out in order to get up the next hill I would have to stop at the bottom. I would have to let her putt along ahead so that I could get enough steam to get up the hill without sliding off into the ditch.

I was late for work, I was cold, my head hurt, the blinding snow had me drenched before I got to the door of Focus on the Family. I looked like a wet overgrown rat. I was pretty well frustrated and having a fantastic start to my day.

I stuck around for a few hours until, surprisingly enough, many people went home due to the snowstorm.

My alarm went off at 6 am today. I was expecting another day like yesterday…only to see the sun rising on Pike’s Peak. It was a gorgeous day. It was a day unlike any other day. The sun was brilliant, the temperature was in the low 70’s, the skies were a deep ocean blue and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. People say that a lot, but even as they are saying it, there’s probably one little puffy cloud over in the corner of the sky. But not here…not today. It was absolutely perfect.

A little side note. Have you ever noticed no matter where you live, the local saying is “if you don’t like the weather today, just wait a day. It’ll change.” Anyway, I digress.

I thought about it on the drive home. How many times do we find ourselves in the midst of a raging storm…either in us or around us? It seems hopeless. The light at the end of the tunnel turns out to be a locomotive. Life seems somewhat unbearable.

It’s amazing how quickly things can change with God. God can instantly rescue us from our circumstances. So, why doesn’t He always? Don’t know. Maybe He has more refining coming from the fire we are walking through. I can tell you in my life’s fires, the Lord doesn’t always rescue at the very moment that I wished He would. Looking back, I am glad that I stayed there longer because I needed the additional growth. When you go through the fire, you come out smelling a little like smoke. Now, my deepest and most meaningful relationships are with other fire walkers.


As much as possible, embrace the hard times. Imagine the other side and the lives that can possibly be touched by your story. And above all remember that peace is not the absence of turbulence, but the presence of Jesus Christ.