All over the news there have been stories of the disastrous wildfires in Gatlinburg, TN, which burnt down countless buildings and numerous homes. This beloved and beautiful vacation spot was somewhere to go to just get away for a weekend or to experience Christmas year ‘round. However, in an instant, a roaring fire changed the whole perspective of an entire city.

Morosely, as this wildfire ripped through Gatlinburg and left it in utter devastation, the wildfires of sin do the same to Christians. So often we go through our daily lives soaking up the beloved and beautiful things of this world, but quickly forget how these priceless materials arrived here. Far too often we go through life thinking it is Christmas everyday, instead of realizing that sometimes life isn't going to give you the lemons you need to make lemonade. As Christians we wrongly assume that we have all the time in the world, but we don’t; we are not even promised tomorrow, according to Proverbs 27:1.

Christians fail to remember that this life isn't gumdrops and candy canes, this life is hard, rocky, and arduous. This isn't going to be a walk down downtown Gatlinburg looking in all the cute window shops, this will be more like walking through the dangerous downtown Jackson alone at night. Because sadly our world isn't the window shops in Gatlinburg, it's the sketchy areas where temptations and sins lies at the door that we as Christians need to be. We need to get out of our comfort zones and be willing to do what Matthew 28:19-20 commands, instead of just quoting it.

The wildfires that captured the cherished Gatlinburg, Tennessee altered the city's landscape that took decades to design and build, in a matter of hours. We need to be wildfires. We need to take places that are lost, dying, and in utter desolation and alter their entire perspective. When Satan has encompassed an area, it is like a gloomy Monday, but as soon as the light of Jesus is shed, that once gloomy city becomes brighter than the brightest Saturday afternoon we have ever experienced. Imagine how different this world would be if we decided that today we were going to be on fire for Jesus, instead of just proclaiming to be. We have a Savior that CHANGED the world. Think about all He did in His short time here, everyone knows His name, thousands of years later. We need to be wildfires. Imagine if we left such an impact on this world that when we left, hundreds of years later we were still remembered as the man or woman who lived and died for their Lord and Savior.

Be a wildfire.