The fires in Paradise, California have raised a new level of shock and lowered a new level of innocence in my life and likely yours. Stories are truly harrowing and heroic and are packed with emotion that capture the human spirit with quite a strong grip. Sadness is huge. There’s nothing quite like last years October fires and this years November ones. There’s nothing so urgently destructive as wind fueled fire and blazing billowing embers. Black. Loss. Ashes. Lives. Earth. And total emergency colliding with total impact. It’s total devastation. I’ve heard over eleven thousand structures were destroyed, 631 people still unaccounted for, over 60 deaths, and 90% of Paradise was destroyed. In our own religious denomination, the church burned to the ground, all 4 pastors and their families lost their homes, and the school lost the K-4th grade building with numerous unknown damage to the remaining elementary and academy campus. Other churches burned, family businesses of 40+ years destroyed, and gas stations, grocers, and all kinds of offices left in ruins. The hospital is rumored to have as little as 20 minutes to evacuate surgery cases, pull out IV cords, empty patient floors, and vacate employees, and the elderly were rushed into wheelchairs and put in everything from ambulances to personal vehicles to get out. People were running from flames with babies in their hands, running into a river bank with loved ones on their side, and driving cars with nothing from home and everything from fear. God was ushering servants out and satan was ushering sin in. The fire still burns tonight, the totals are not yet done. Paradise. Fires are burning throughout the country and the world in a host of life-changing ways. Fires are burning in your life and mine. What kind of times are we living in? Are we the generation that was tagged for End Time events? And if we are, do we know the God who chose us for that and are we clinging to His lead and His love in such a calling as this? “From the end of the earth I call to You . . . .Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalm 61:2.
It’s Friday night and seven days since the fires began. My husband and I were talking together about the trauma and tragedy of the week and sharing different moments and stories that captured us. We talked of our friends piecing their lives together after losing their homes. We talked of the people still missing and the long wait ahead. We talked of the unbelief. I shared with him I’d been feeling physically sick and mentally sickened by it all and felt it to be so personal in my life, my dear friends lives, and my faith life. It’s called a lot up in my heart and mind and brought a newness to what’s possible in the times we live in. We chatted about those that have experienced shock through tsunamis, earthquakes, starvation, and deaths and how you can’t realize until you’ve been in something like it. We chatted about Noah’s Ark being a more primitive time and what it must have been like for Noah to be in a boat with the shock of his whole town, friends, and homestead being flooded and destroyed. We talked about how our world is not primitive today and the world has provided so much convenience we don’t register survival or surrealness as much. Most of all, we talked of the place God has in all this and when He’ll come. Being married to someone is a special place. Having loved family and friends is a special place. Being raw and honest is a special place. It allows you to be scared or sobering together. Tonight it also allowed praying together about Paradise fires and our feelings of future. As my husband took my hand and prayed with me, something he said in his prayer stuck with me. I think it will for awhile. I’m sharing a part of us with you in hopes it will stick with you too. “Strengthen us in faith now Lord so that when we go through tragedy personally in our life, we’ll be ready with faith.” Being prepared with strong faith wasn’t something on my disaster preparedness list. Building dependance on God now so I would have it functional for destructive fire later wasn’t on my disaster preparedness list. I didn’t think of it that way. And while fireboxes of important papers, lists of special memorabilia, and the family evacuation plan are good, I can finally begin to put into words what I take from the past seven days of fire obliteration, as well as create a more poignant disaster preparedness list. Faith in Jesus must be at home in my heart. Faith must be wanted in my life. Faith must be asked for to my God. Faith must be first on my disaster response. Obliteration of life as I know it is possible. So is Jesus in my life. Faith in Him must be at home in my heart. “From the end of the earth I call to You. . . .Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalm 61:2
I don’t know why God allows fire to destroy so much. I only know he can bring beauty out of it. My friends are telling me they’ve never felt so loved. Facebook is telling me people have never seen so much generosity from schools, churches, communities, or towns. Clothing, toiletries, gift cards, money, trailers, and open doors are coming in droves. God is responding to fire with legions of strategic fire fighters from across the state battling from the air and ground while He’s also cuing counselors, cooks, and care givers to fight the trauma with survivors and evacuees. People are praying that have never prayed before. God is increasing faith in humanity where a world had blinded it so busily. God is answering loss and wreckage with keeping trucks running through flames to rescue, keeping families evacuating through windy roads and in cold creek banks, and keeping animals moved to safety. It’s a long road ahead caused by a very quick ravage of destruction. But God is in the details of fire, God is in the details of forward, and God is in the details of faith. We’re helpless without Him. I feel it. We can’t survive fire without Him giving us refuge in each other and without us giving ourselves dependently to Him. We can’t escape the world until it’s time to leave it. But we can choose to escape the devil and leave him. We live in perilous times. We need a plan. We need a daily plan and a future plan. I believe both plans have the same two things on the list. God. Faith. Not a faith that everything will be okay, but a faith that we’ll be okay. Not a faith that fire won’t come again, but a faith that when it does God will sustain and deliver. Not a faith that’s based on good enough quality or quantity of it, but a faith that’s based on being real with God anytime by anyone for anything and knowing you can do that. Not a faith that’s perfect or proper, but a faith that’s willing to start and grow and do that time and time again if needed. God of love and help. Faith of accepting love and help. Live your life, but live it with Him. You are always loved and your cries and joys are always heard. Don’t fight any fire alone. Don’t celebrate any survival alone. When all the comfortable and reliant pieces of life fall and you can’t return home to your sanctuary, when people are all you have to shelter you and you can’t wear your own clothes or eat off your own dish, and when uncertain futures and plaguing questions are all you have and you can’t answer any of ’em, feel your faith and fight forward with Christ. Build it and believe it. Ask for help doing it, ask for help when you’re afraid of having it or unsure of using it. If you have “everything” or nothing else, have faith in trying faith with Jesus. He’s the fire fighter. I’m building my faith too. I’m moving fires that came, working through fires today, and preparing for fires to come. But I’m not building alone. I’m building with all of you. I’m building with God. Faith in Jesus must be at home in my heart. Faith must be wanted in my life. Faith must be asked for to my God. Faith must be first on my disaster response. “From the end of the earth I call to You. . . .Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalm 61:2
Do you have money? It won’t survive a fire. Do you have possessions? They won’t survive a fire. Do you have a fire fighter in Jesus? It will survive a fire. Get close to Him. Be close to Him. Stay close to Him. He’s already done all three with you. He loves you more than you could ever understand. He fully and faithfully loves you. “From the end of the earth I call to You. . . .Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalm 61:2
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. . .” Ephesians 3:14-19 (paraphrased)
“From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalm 61:2
This blog is dedicated to all the Paradise fire survivors re-building the pieces of their life after fire. This blog is dedicated to each life who’s learning what faith is and trying to do it in their life with God.
The stats in this blog are not quoted from a news station, story, or publication. They are what I’ve heard, they are changing, and may not be fully accurate.
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