purpose to melody

Wearing a full flame retardant suit, or bunker gear(as the navy as a different name for absolutely EVERYTHING) and an air tank and mask with helmet, gloves, and boots, and then running into a burning room or smoking maze is the sweatiest thing I've done in my life, next to the 13km ruck march last summer, where I could have filled a bucket just by wringing out my shirt. So the past 2 days we've been fighting fires and learning the ropes on how to put one out, what to wear, what kind of fire extinguishers to use, how to use them, firehoses, and all that fun stuff. I have a new-found respect for professional firefighters now, because I thought it would just running in there and spraying at the flame, like you would to put out a campfire, but it's not that easy! Especially when there's smoke everywhere and you can't see a thing and you're dragging a hose and yelling commands at your team or getting yelled at what to do. But I definitely felt victorious walking down that hall with my helmet and gloves in hand, dripping sweat. If life could be put in slow motion, it would have been just like a scene in a movie. Put me in a fireman calender.

And today we went through a smoke maze, same thing with the fires, couldn't see a thing and was just crawling over and under stuff while hanging on to the foot of the guy infront of me. The objective was to get to where this guy was trapped and rescue him, so it was quite the adventure, but in real life it wouldn't have been so fun. And today I was soaked to the bone again in sweat after stripping out of my bunker gear, but it felt good and was really fun. Tomorrow we fight fires again, and then it's the long weekend!

I have to learn to just live out to the fullest wherever I am, and not hang too much to the thought that I'll be coming home in less than a month. It's a great place here, the people are great, and it's a blessing that I get along with everyone here. But I've got to remember that even though it is my mission to bring people to Christ, it's also my mission to live a life in the love of Christ, and to love them first, and not just throw the Jesus grenade at them every chance I can. Just because I have that passion and desire to talk about Him, it may be best to listen and love, to make friends, and let the Spirit do the work and for me to let go of the controls, cos it's not going to work if I try to work it all out by myself! Because then I end up fueled by my selfish motives and even though I may have in mind to do the Lord's work, the only way I can fully do so is to surrender it all and let Him move and use me. I guess easier said than done. But can be done, with His help!