We only need to take a stroll through YouTube or watch the news to realize the following scripture is part of our daily life. The world is not the walk in the park of yesterday; it is a daily battle.
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12 KJV)
It reminds me of the summer I got a job fighting forest fires on the Sitgreaves National Forest in Heber, Arizona. During that summer, I learned fire is a powerful force so much like the battle in which we are currently engaged. If it is controlled, fire is a wonderful blessing. If it is uncontrolled, it is a powerful and destructive force that can change the forest and our lives forever.
The first few weeks, firefighting was training. We had physical training in the morning, which entailed stretching exercises, jumping jacks and running 3 miles. Of course, we worked into it all slowly. We only went 1 mile the first day. I thought I was going to die, but I soon grew to love running in the fresh morning air. As the summer progressed, we started doing the Indian run. An Indian run starts out as a leisurely jog and escalates into a full-blown sprint. The runners line up and jog down the road. The last runner sprints up to the front and sets the pace for the rest of the runners. Then the last person races to the front and takes the place of the first person. This goes on until the destination is reached or the runners die off one by one. I’m only 5 feet, 2 inches tall, and there were guys 6 feet tall. I had to sprint just to keep up with their jogs.
Parents have no idea what their children will face in the future. They send their children to school thinking their children are running the same races they grew up with, but no. Their children are running against 6- and 7-foot problems we have never heard of. Parents are teaching "stranger danger," but their children need training to run against corporations, syndicates and wicked philosophies that didn’t exist in our childhood. Parents have no idea what their children are facing or will face in the future with new technologies and philosophies. Our children are facing a sprint through life that is unparalleled to any proverbial spiritual Olympic race ever run.
I was on a tanker crew that summer. We rode around in a green Forest Service truck that had a 100-gallon tank of water. I usually was on small fires that didn’t amount to anything, but I was on one fire that started as a controlled burn. A controlled burn is a fire that is intentionally started to burn underbrush and debris. It is a beneficial practice that has been ignored in recent years. This controlled fire took on a mind of its own and licked up 80 acres before it was finished. I had never seen fire like that. It was a raging torrent in front of the wind. We built a fire line, and the fire jumped it. We backed up and started another line. When we knew it was going to get away from us, our crew boss, Dennis, decided to set a backfire. I had heard the term before, but I didn’t understand the impact or the reasoning behind it. A backfire is a fire that is set a few yards away from the main fire. The main fire creates a wind and draws the backfire toward it. When the fires meet, there is nothing left for the mother fire to burn, so it loses momentum and finally dies out.
I calmly, unsuspectingly watched Dennis set small fires intermittently along the ravine. In only seconds, his fires blazed up, licking up the dead pine needles. Then there was a tremendous roar as both fires caught each other’s winds. The two fires met in a split second, roaring and crackling in a towering inferno. Little jack pines sizzled like Roman candles, and huge pines became skeletons. There was nothing left but black earth for 50 yards.
Panic surged up in me. I’d never lost control before, and I started like a frightened deer. Dennis caught me and said, “Never lose control, Yevet. You’ve got to keep your head.” He knew if I panicked, I could run right into the fire and lose my life.
In today’s battle, we can’t lose control. We must be vigilant, always aware that the enemy is real.
We had left our backpacks down in the ravine where we first encountered the fire. We walked back to get them, feeling that we had stopped the head of the fire, but to our dismay, we found we were nearly surrounded by fire. Spot fires had started and were moving in another direction. We radioed for help. We knew we would not be able to hold it alone. We moved into our campsite with wet bandanas on our faces to get through the thick smoke. We gathered our gear and put it in the truck and began in earnest to fight the fire. We were not just fighting one fire now; we were fighting many little spot fires. The wind would blow a spark into the top of a dry pine tree, and it would explode into flames. Then there would be another fire roaring in the forest. Our meager efforts to dig a fire line around the fires were like trying to put a toothpick fence across the Colorado River.
We fought fire until about 11 p.m. We’d put out one spot fire, and another would start. It seemed futile until the heavy equipment came. The Cats could dig fire lines in a matter of seconds. Slurry planes flew in and dropped pink liquid all over the fire. It was short work then. We just had to mop up the flames and make sure everything was cold out. Sparks can sleep in the pine needles for weeks and start a new fire, so it took us a long time to put out all the hot spots.
Firefighting techniques have changed; big government has changed the management of our forests, and our lives. They stopped doing controlled burns and managing the forest. The government shut down the logging industry, which for years had cleared the older trees from the forest, leaving the young trees to thrive.
In 2002, when the Rodeo-Chedidki Fire burned through my forest, my little fire was nothing to the raging inferno that growled through our homeland, licking up the world as it went. Now, instead of lush green forest, the scenery is miles of charred toothpicks standing against the stark blue sky. It looked like perpetual winter, except for the new grass that is growing under the black skeletons. I can’t think about my forest without getting a lump in my throat.
Things we hold dearer than our forest are at the mercy of our government officials, the Supreme Court and special interest groups. Gavels fall and our lives change. The pledge of allegiance becomes a meaningless piece of rhetoric – the Constitution, a relic of the past. On our country’s present course, our freedoms will be gone, and they will not be back in our lifetime. Tolerance sometimes should not be tolerated. Sometimes, we just have to say enough is enough. Wickedness is wickedness. If we give permission to perversions, we must give permission to every other sordid behavior the natural man can conceive. Fire is fire. In a dry forest, you don’t even tolerate a matchstick or a sleeping campfire. You fight fire before it starts. The forest is a precious place, and the American way of life is far more precious than any forest. You can regrow a forest, but not liberty. America can’t afford a matchstick. We may never have another chance at freedom.
We are wrestling with darkness and evil in high places. We must teach our children what it means to be ready for the battle and to put on the whole armor of God every day.
"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." (Ephesians 6:13-16 KJV)
