After watching some of the news footage of the
Minneapolis bridge collapse I couldn’t keep from writing about one of the video stories I saw. The one that impacted me the most was one done by a reporter who had been on the scene since moments after the collapse. He was interviewing two teenage boys who had been helping a family member move when they witnessed the collapse. In order to help the victims and the arriving rescue workers they climbed down what looked like a huge cliff. Only a handful of rescue workers had arrived and they were seeking the help and support of the few civilians who had also arrived to help. These boys did not consider themselves to be heroes, they just did what had to be done. In an effort to get to those that needed help, they unselfishly put themselves in harms way to help another.
What a testament to the human good nature right? Wrong, although many folks would say the opposite. I do not know the spiritual condition of those teenage boys but if they are not believers in Christ then even their seemingly selfless acts are not good. The bible states that no one outside of their faith in Christ does good. The human heart is deceitful. Anyway on to the story.
What this story also causes me to consider is this: Are we as believers in Christ in rescue mode? Are we willing, like those teenage boys to put ourselves in harms way to preach and teach the good news (gospel) of Jesus Christ. If you understand the doctrines of grace then you also understand that God is the rescuer and we are only vessels of the good news. But are we making ourselves available? Shouldn’t we be selflessly approaching our neighbors with this life saving news? I am reminded of Romans 1:16:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
I am once again convicted by this verse and by the seemingly selfless act of the teenagers above. I pray that God would give me the desire to always put on the hat of a rescuer.
Here is the Fox News video story I refer to above.
Upon This Rawk 