Korean Fire Drill

Have you heard of a Chinese Fire Drill? That's where you pull up to a stop sign or light and everyone gets out of the car, runs around the car. Then, they all get back in, but everyone is in a different seat. Well, Korean fire drills can be just about as much fun.

Today, while I am teaching a class of 11 seven year olds, I see one of the teachers run up to my window, look in, look in the window across the hall and then run back down the hall as fast as she could go. I am thinking to myself, "What's going on? Did one of the students disappear?" So, I open my classroom door and look down the hall only to see smoke coming up the stairwell. The other American teacher is looking the same direction and I asked him if we were supposed to evacuate. He said he didn't know. One of the Korean teachers says that the smoke is from downstairs and it's okay, just keep teaching. I'm thinking, "If downstairs is on fire, we need to get out of here." I go back into my classroom and continue teaching still wondering what's going on. A couple of hours later, at lunch, I find out that another school on the floor below was having a fire drill with their students. They told me that this school has a fire drill almost once a month and that they try to make them as real as possible. So, they use smoke bombs. They bought them from a different manufacturer this time and they were much more powerful than the previous ones. We asked our fellow teachers what we were supposed to do in case of real fire. We have never had a fire drill. In America, there would be a fire escape plan posted in each classroom. My school is on the fourth floor and there is only one stairwell. What do we do if there is a fire on the second floor and we can't go down the stairs? When we asked this question, we were told they have a rope in one of the classrooms. We have 80 plus seven year old students and about 12 adults that we would be trying to lower by rope out a window. They are now considering what we would do and planning about how to handle the real scenario.

As I think about this, I couldn't help but think how Satan is like this fire drill. He likes to give us something that looks like the real thing, but it is really just a subtle lie. I man looking for a wife and a man looking to enjoy himself with a woman for a night say the same thing, "I love you." One is being sincere and thinking of the other person's feelings, whereas the other is only looking out for himself. One truly means what he says, the other is lying to get what he wants. Satan likes to tell us what we want to hear instead of telling us the hard truth. He used these same tactics when he spoke to Jesus in the desert. Unfortunately, this is happening in many churches these days. The preacher is telling people what they want to hear and not speaking the "truth in love" to their sheep. The old adage is, "where there is smoke there is fire." In this circumstance at the school, there was smoke, but no fire. Many churches make a lot of smoke, but where is the fire. Where is the Holy Spirit actually changing people's lives, making them into new creatures? Where is the power of people surrendered to God following Him no matter what the cost? Where are the people who have been delivered from the power of sin, who are dead to sin, but alive to God through Christ? Where is the fire of love for mankind that should lead people to show compassion on others, to share the gospel with them, to share the truth even when it hurts? In my Bible, it says that my God is a consuming fire. Are you being consumed by Him?