Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire.
Every single thing has a foundation—even bad things. Rumors have a foundation. A rocky relationship has a foundation. Fights have a foundation. There is always a starting point in regard to a situation. A lot of times, we as people, have a difficult time looking at all the warning signs before chaos breaks loose. Then we try to figure out what went wrong. The funny thing is; that most of the signs were there the entire time. The foundation had been faulty from the beginning. Smoke was already billowing above our heads. We just simply chose to ignore it. Most problems start with minor problems and snowball into larger problems. We just have got to be able to recognize the signs early on.
One night, the pastor/husband and I were in our bedroom winding down for the evening. It was after 9:00 pm and he was watching a little tv and I was doing some light reading. Out of nowhere, our 16-year-old comes running up the stairs banging on our door. She says that a fire is outside and that it is big. The pastor/husband gets up and runs downstairs. I go into the bathroom so that I can see what was happening out the window, and there it was. An entire golf cart was directly in front of my neighbor's house completely engulfed in flames. I run downstairs and out the door. My neighbor and my husband have by now pulled the water hoses out and they are trying to put this fire out. It was hot too. As soon as I stepped out the front door, I could feel the heat from this fire. There was no one in sight but us. We had no clue where the cart came from, how the fire started, and who was involved. We hadn't even had the time to call the fire department, but someone did, and they ended up extinguishing the flames.
To make a long story short, the cart had been driven by some kids and caught on fire all of a sudden. When they began to see the flames, they ran and tried to get another neighbor to come to the door. I won’t add more to the story, because I am not 100% sure what happened. What I do know, however, is that no one was injured because of the fire and that everyone was able to make it home safely. After a few hours, a tow truck came and removed the cart from the middle of our street, and now all is well in the world. I was able to even pull inspiration out of this mishap so that I could share it with you all.
I am no expert when it comes to mechanics. What I can say is; that cart probably was giving signs that something was wrong with it a while ago. Most kids really don’t pay attention to details. They just hop on and go. I remember when I started driving a car. I wasn’t paying attention to the brake lights, or the check engine lights. I didn’t care. I just wanted to ride and feel my hair all in the wind. I am pretty sure that these kids missed the warning signs before the cart was engulfed in flames. Thankfully no one was hurt and they were able to get away. I wonder though, if they would have noticed a problem beforehand, and told someone, would the cart have been repaired? Would the fire still have happened? I guess we will never know, but since it did happen let’s grab a lesson out of it.
I know, I know, “T what is the point of this story?” The point, my friends, is; that where there is smoke, there is fire. Most problems have a starting point. Don’t ignore the warning signs and end up with a bigger mess in the end, or even end up hurt. If you can nip it in the bud from the beginning, do just that! I know that sometimes, things pop up, but there are those times (most times) when a problem has been slow-cooked and simmered, and we act all surprised when it blows up in our faces. My point? Don’t ignore the warning signs. Pay attention to the smoke before the fire engulfs you. The Bible talks about there being a warning before destruction. That means, we have an opportunity to adhere to the warning signs before the problems come in and cause all kinds of damage in our lives. If you have to say “bye, bye, bye”, to something because it is of no benefit to you and it will cause problems later; DO JUST THAT. Don’t wait until it gets out of hand. Handle it now. Pour water on those baby flames before they become all consuming.
