Fireworks Cancelled

The farmers in this area are praying for rain and for cooler temperatures. Today is our eighth day of 100+ degree heat with no appreciable rain. It was 105 degrees yesterday and is anticipated to be 107 degrees today. Fireworks displays all over the region were cancelled for the July 4 celebration yesterday and severe drought and NO FIRE warnings have been posted in nearly every community . . . and, still, there were several folk who thought it was okay for them to shoot off their personal stash of fireworks over the last couple of days. What is up with that?


I have been told by those qualified to announce such an analysis that I have a highly developed sense of right and wrong, though those who know me well will tell you that such a 'gift' hasn't always served me when most I needed it. Yet, at least in my life, the more the chips are down, the more intense I become in advocating for those most in need, in petitioning for those most at risk, in protecting those most vulnerable. I don't always succeed, nor am I always even-handed about it, but I try. At least I try.

What I don't understand are those who believe the rules are meant for everyone other than themselves, especially when so many lives and so much property is in danger. I cannot fathom setting off fireworks when entire fields of crops and timber are as dry as tinder. I cannot fathom lighting the fuse to bottle rockets when lawns are brittle and otherwise fairly harmless sparks now have the power to burn the landscape to a crisp. I cannot imagine what gives one person permission to do whatever they want when the greater part of the community would be the ones who suffer.

Last night, as Nancy, Ched and I watched the last of a Cardinal baseball 'Winner!', while constantly hearing fireworks being set off in the neighborhood, one of Ched's friends at the Air Force Academy texted him, "Those who read the Fire Warning articles are not the ones who most need the information." Doesn't it seem to be the truth? The ones who believe themselves entitled to do what they want and exempt from the guidelines by which others must live are not the ones most likely to read such a warning, nor care about the implications of not reading at all. Yet, the question remains, 'What to do about them?', after all, they are God's children, too. (And, truth be told, have not every one of us been 'them' at one time or another in our lives?)

The way I read the Bible, God is fairly clear about how the faith community is to respond: In Jesus we are taught to live in relationship with others, to value community, to consider our covenantal life with the world as our response to God's covenantal Life with all creation, and to be faithful to who we are created to be, regardless the choices others make. We are not judged by the choices of others, but by our capacity to be true to who we are created to be. Another person's choice to set off a bottle rocket is exactly that: their choice. When others chose to run away from Him, when others chose to deny Him, even when others chose to nail Him to a cross, Jesus chose to be exactly who He was: Faithful to God.

Maybe the deeper questions around those who set off fireworks in a drought have more to do with understanding our shared citizenship in the world (or lack thereof) than with finding a way to stop them. Maybe it is time to claim our citizenship in the Kingdom by proclaiming the Good News to all the nations, teaching them to obey all that He has taught us, extending grace and hope to those who feel themselves already marginalized . . . . Maybe it is time to stop fuming over the poor choices of others and focus on being true to self in God.

Yet, you know God, sometimes it would feel really good and be really satisfying to turn the nozzle on the hose to 'Flood' and wash they and all their fireworks away, laughing maniacally as they holler out for mercy, floating away in a sea of their own doing! But, then I remember You sent Jesus for me, rather than wash me away . . . and I am humbled by your Hope in me. Help me to hope in others in equal measure!