Fire Truck Religion

 
Not so long ago we visited a fire-truck museum which reminded us that fire-fighting has a very long and respectable history.  The popularity of the museum is a tangible reminder that fie-fighters are held in high esteem.  As a citizen of our community I find it a comforting thought that we have a well-equipped Fire Brigade in town.  Fire-trucks are kept in A1 condition; always ready for any and every emergency.  A group of dedicated men are “on call” twenty-four hours a day.  And increasingly these days that team will also include women.  Should the need arise they are able to get themselves to any site around town at short notice – and they often do.  I once served in a church that was virtually next door to a Fire Station and I often saw the fire crew racing off to some new emergency.  It’s good for a city to have a capable Fire Department.  At the same time I also hope and pray that I shall never need its services.  The fire truck is there for the kinds of emergencies that I sincerely hope I will never have.

However, in daily life it’s all too easy for us to treat God like a fireman and our faith like the local fire-truck.  God and religion are “for emergencies only” and we really hope we won’t have too many of them.  But when the threat of serious illness looms then it’s handy to know we can pray and we are quick to turn to God with our requests.  When economic problems begin to crush us, we suddenly decide that we need to get some regularity into our church going once again.

For many of us prayer is something rather foreign – we rarely pray to God.  Maybe the last time we prayed was that day when Junior was desperately ill and the doctors said that things really didn’t look good.  And the last time we went to church on a Sunday was back in the days when Mum and Dad made us do that.

For too many people in our society God and religion are “for emergencies only”.  If the need is urgent enough all of us will pray, “Help me, God!”  Please make my child well...!  Please grant me financial success because my business is ‘going down the gurgler’.  God, bless my efforts to find work because I can’t cope anymore...!  I’m sure you can easily add many more such emergency prayers to that list.

Let’s be honest, crises are often the only times when some of us get really serious about God and the Christian faith.  We remember a saying from the war years: “There aren’t any atheists in fox-holes”.  When we’re caught in the life-threatening crossfires of life we all like to appeal to someone Greater than us.  The problem is that in this way we treat the Almighty Creator of the universe as a Fireman: call Him out for the emergency – but ignore and disregard Him when the emergency is past and we’re able to manage on our own again.

The story is told of one of the astronauts involved in the moon landing.  He was asked whether he did a lot of praying when he was up there in his space capsule.  His reply was, “Not really!  I don’t believe in fire truck religion.  I did most of my praying beforehand.”

For those of us who do have a fire-truck religion, there is one thing we ought not to forget: The local fire truck helps those in trouble who belong to the community.  Those who live in another community can never be certain whether our fire trucks will help them or not – maybe they will, maybe they won’t.  Perhaps it isn’t all that different when it comes to God.  Those who are not a true part of God’s faith-community have no assurance that He will help them in crisis.  Maybe He will, maybe He won’t.  Those, on the other hand, who by faith, belong to the community of His Son, Jesus, have the assurance that He will make all things work out for their eternal well-being.  He has promised, “I will never leave you or forsake you!”  Christians who live daily in relationship with Jesus don’t need to make emergency prayers – they are in constant contact with Him and He with them.  That’s anything but fire-truck religion.

John Westendorp
2MaxFM Nov.30th 2025

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