I was absolutely speechless when I read a story about some firefighters in Obion County, Tennessee. Apparently in this particular area, homeowners must pay a $75 annual fee for fire protection services. If they do not pay the fee, they are out of luck if their home catches on fire, even if firefighters are at the scene. A man by the name of Gene Cranick had to find this out the hard way. His house caught on fire and he could not contain it, so he called 911. Even though he offered to pay all of the expenses to the fire department, the firefighters refused to do anything about his blazing house. They would not even show up.

Surprisingly, the firefighters did show up, but not for Cranick. They showed up only when a next-door neighbor, who paid his $75 fee, called because he was worried the fire might spread to his property. So, the firefighters arrived, watched Cranick’s house burn down, and leaped into action only when the fire reached the neighbor’s property.

Cranick said that he had paid this fee the previous year, the year before that, and other times, but that this time he had just forgot about it. Now, should Gene Cranick have paid his $75 fire protection fee? Absolutely. Did he learn a very valuable lesson for next time? I would hope so. But something has to be said about these firefighters. One writer by the name of Daniel Foster said this, “What moral theory allows these firefighters (admittedly acting under orders) to watch this house burn to the ground when 1) they have already responded to the scene, 2) they have the means to stop it ready at hand, 3) and they have a reasonable expectation to be compensated for their trouble?”

The points Foster just made seem to apply beyond that situation. As we begin to think about our spiritual lives, many times we can end up being like those firefighters. Think about it this way…

(1) We are at the scene. We are here on earth. We are in a position to help so many people who are in danger of losing their souls. There are people everywhere who need the Gospel, and we are always in a position to help.

(2) We have the means on hand to stop it. We have been given the Bible. This is the best tool anyone could have given us to put out the deadly flames of sin. We have the means to stop so many from going into eternal punishment.

(3) We have no reason not to help. Many times we come up with reasons not to be evangelistic, but very few are actually legitimate. I have found myself on several occasions inventing excuses why I should not start up a spiritual conversation with someone. But really, we do not have a good excuse not to at least try to bring someone to the Lord.

Whether we think the firefighters in Tennessee were right or wrong, the bottom line was, we saw some firefighters who would not put out the fires. In our lives, let’s never be Christians who would not tell others about Christ.

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Brett Petrillo