Spiritual Size-Up: “With God All Things Are Possible

In Bryan Smith’s Article on Fire ground Decision Making he gives a great explanation of size-up, its importance, and who’s responsible for it. ”Size-up is all about gathering and evaluating information in order to make good fire ground decisions”. As we grow in our experience and skill level our ability to process the critical fire ground factors into a rapid and well thought out plan becomes almost instinctive.

Firefighters spend countless hours training, educating, and learning the craft in the name of pride for the job.

How many hours have we spent training, disciplining, educating, and deepening our relationship with God, our spouse, and our children?

How are we to effectively help our brothers if we don’t know the true source of our strength?

A spiritual size-up of one’s brokenness begins with understanding that Christ has already identified the problem (sin), Implemented His Incident Action Plan (sacrificed his life for you and me), and completely Mitigated the problem once and for all (through his resurrection He has defeated sin & death).

As we grow spiritually, our sensitivity to sin increases.  We begin to think differently. When God leans on your heart your perspective begins to change. You begin to ask questions such as:

What is the reaction to sin in my life?

Am I truly sizing up the problem of my sin?

Am I trying to put out a fire that only God can extinguish?

Am I putting a band aid on a bullet wound of my sin? Jesus is the one who truly saves lives.

Fellowship/Brotherhood-Do Your Lives Match Your Words?

The mention of the word Brotherhood can quickly stir up a conversation in a firehouse.  It has lost its meaning with many firefighters today.

Why is this?

We see the brotherhood every time a firefighter dies in the Line of Duty but what about the moments leading up to that event? We are in danger of becoming a “walking hypocrisy”. If we only honor those we trust with our lives when they are tragically killed, what good have we really done? Is it all for show?

In the Christian faith, we are found guilty by not living what we believe by our own poor choices. We must come back to the beginning. We took an oath before God to serve Him and Him only by giving Him our heart. We took another oath to serve our fellow man in any circumstance when we are called. It would seem that we are in a position of double accountability.

Remember these words the next time you think of brotherhood:

“Don’t just pretend that you love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of the good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy in your work, but serve the Lord enthusiastically.” (Romans 12:9-11)