What I Learned from the Fire
Posted in The Life of the Historian and tagged with Adversity, Blessings, Church, Fire, God on April 7, 2009This month’s “What I Learned From…” is about adversity. Immediately when I heard this topic, I knew I had to talk about what happened to me a year and a half ago. Many of you are new around here, and probably don’t even know about it.
In August of 2007, I had a small apartment fire. Pictures can be found here, but they don’t do justice to the amount of damage done to our apartment, primarily through the sprinkler that shot out 45 gallons of water a minute (it was on for about 20 minutes). While cleaning and packing up the apartment in just a couple of days, we had to withstand 90 degree heat (the air conditioner wouldn’t work because it was clogged up with smoke) and the overwhelming smell of burnt oil and mildew (the water was still standing in our apartment for several days).
Yet through it all, I learned to trust in God in a way that I’ve never had to trust in Him before. As organized and as type-A as I am, I was thrown into a situation where I didn’t know how I would get through the current day, let alone what was going to happen the next.
More than that, I learned that God is trustworthy. I’ve never counted myself as blessed as I did during those days. As soon as a seemingly-insurmountable need would present itself, someone would offer to help or provide what would meet that need. Just a few examples:
We had no where to spend the night – the seminary put us up in an emergency apartment, complete with washer and dryer (we needed those to wash all our clothes that now smelled like smoke)
In the first few minutes we were scared and emotionally exhausted – a friendly paramedic checked us out to ensure we hadn’t inhaled too much smoke while the firefighters completely cleared out the living room, used brooms to get the foot of water out of our apartment, and put our belongings back inside on tarps
We had so much to pack, both in our bedrooms and in the common area – women from church came and packed up our kitchen, so we wouldn’t have to
We had a whole dining room full of furniture and other items that were ruined in the fire to haul to the dumpster – several able-bodied teenagers and a woman with a van hauled it all out
We needed tons of workers to move our items into the new apartment – the seminary hired us movers so we didn’t have to touch a thing
We lost our small kitchen appliances in the fire – every one was replaced at no cost to us
Every other little need we had – the church provided us with a substantial gift card to care of them
These are just a few of the little things that blessed me those days. We didn’t have family that lived nearby, but the church was our family and acted accordingly and sacrificially toward us. Just like they helped me financially in my hard time, I’ve been working on doing the same to others while so many are struggling with the loss of work.
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April 7th, 2009 at 1:14 am
Wow- what an awesome testimony that is! As unpleasant as it is to deal with fire – the rewards of coming through it seem to outweigh it!
April 7th, 2009 at 7:41 am
Wow, that is awesome that you have such a good outlook on the fire. Most people, including myself, would probably dwell on the negatives for far too long. But I really am working on asking myself the question “what is God trying to teach me?” when some adversity comes my way.
Like when I just felt the sudden, overwhelming urge to just quit my job. I just knew that wasn’t the place for me to be, and that I was wasting my time there. But then when I couldn’t find another job, I was questioning myself as to if I made the right decision. Then God showed us the reason why…we were able to buy our house through the first-time homebuyer program. If I had been working, we would have overqualified.
April 7th, 2009 at 8:07 am
I’ve got to go check out your pictures…
But you are so right… in the midst of chaos is when you see the true blessings. We have them everyday but when we are forced to see them in chaotic times, we really see how God takes care of us!
April 7th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Sounds like you have a great church family. Although you may have lost material things, it looks like you gained a lot more from the experience.
April 7th, 2009 at 9:37 am
It is a blessing when we can look back on situations really see God at work in our lives. Those are the stories we are to pass down generation to generation. I know you will share this for years to come how God met your needs and used others to bless you and help you during that terrible time in your life. ♥ Joy
April 7th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Do you ever wonder why God’s lessons are so hard sometimes? They’re good…don’t get me wrong…but soo hard!
April 7th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Thanks for the comments on my blog. I’ve popped in a few times, just wanted to let you know I was around.
Lessons are hard. It’s the learning from them that brings experience, compassion, and wisdom.
April 7th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
This is a beautiful posts. I think for me, it’s easiest to see God in the difficult times. When everything is going well, I don’t get as many glimpses of his goodness. It sounds like you are blessed with people who really care about you.
April 7th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
What a blessing everyone was to you!
April 7th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Truly an opportunity to to thank God. I’m glad that you were suroounded by such a wonderful community of people who took such good care of you in your time of need.
April 8th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
why can’t they have more stories like this one on the news? You are right, you gotta have faith it will be okay
April 8th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
How amazing that you were helped by your community. This gives me hope!
Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier today!
April 10th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
What a heart warming story. More things like this need to happen before people seek government aid. Not getting on that soapbox today though.
April 13th, 2009 at 7:02 am
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