Sitting in my chair this evening reading, I smelled smoke. I got up to investigate, and Patty said there were some field fires in the Talbot area, but she thought they were contained. That reminded me of a field fire next to our house about seven years ago. It started from a short between two power lines, and a burning piece of insulation fell into the wheat field next to our house. The weather conditions were about the same as what we have now, and the fire spread rapidly through the field. It was burning towards our home, and when it was about 50 yards away, I went out and began beating on it with my coat. It wasn’t very long before a bunch of fire trucks showed up and got it contained and out in about an hour. When they first arrived, one of the firefighters approached me and said, “Good work, Charles Engels, we will take it from here.” I appreciated his humor!

Every summer, field, forest, and brush fires are everywhere in the news. We don’t have tornadoes or hurricanes, but we do have fires. Unexpected emergencies are part of life. Most of the time, we just read about them on Facebook or hear about them on the news. Still, occasionally, we all have unexpected emergencies that cost us money, time, injuries, and sometimes even death. We all do our best to prepare for those unexpected and unwanted events and do all we can to prevent them, but as the Bible says, “Man was born for troubles as sparks fly upwards.”

So, it is just a matter of time before the unexpected and unwanted come into our lives. There are mostly small ones, but there will eventually be a crisis that takes our breath away. The Bible gives us six ways to respond when a crisis comes into our lives.

1. Don’t think or feel like a victim, that God is mistreating you, or that He doesn’t care or doesn’t love you. God designed life to be full of trials, so don’t be surprised when they come into your life.

1 Peter 4:12-13 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing.

2. Ask God for the strength to endure, not that He would fix, change, or take away the trial. The Lord loves to give His strength to those who ask for it, so ask a lot. The most often prayed prayer in the Bible is the one asking for strength. And remember, God usually gives us strength through other people’s encouragement, so don’t be too proud or self-sufficient not to accept and appreciate gracious words from others.

3. Trust God that He cares for you and knows what He is doing. Tell Him, “I trust You, Lord. I don’t understand why this is happening, but I trust You.”

4. Don’t whine or complain about your fire, but rejoice always. If you do, God will give you His strength and cause incredible character growth in your heart.

5. Don’t be passive in your trust; be like David with Goliath, Samson, Gideon, and the rest of God’s mighty warriors; fix what you can fix, change what you can change, and conquer what you can conquer.

6. When the fire is out and life returns to normal, look for others who are going through what you went through and help them, encourage them, and pray for them. God will use us tremendously so that what we experienced isn’t wasted.