We’re all going to die someday. It’s just one of those inescapable things: life eventually leads to death. Now, this fact of life doesn’t really bother me. I came to accept it long ago. But I have to admit, there are ways of dying I’d just as soon avoid. And at the top of the list is being burned up. It really doesn’t appeal to me at all.
One day, many years ago, when I was flying those Navy helicopters, I had an electrical fire break out right under my pilot’s seat. This was not a good thing, and while I struggled to fly the helicopter back to the carrier, my copilot and crewman were madly trying to put out the fire. As smoke filled the cockpit and my seat began to heat up, all I could think about were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego standing in King Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace. And I prayed that God would be as kind to me as He was to them. Apparently He was.
Not only were these three young men real people, but they were also tough, faith-filled young men. All they had to do was worship a statue, a hunk of metal, and they would live. But instead they refused and chose what seemed to be certain death. They could kneel and live, or refuse and die…and it wasn’t a very nice way of dying.
I especially like the answer they gave the king. They said they hoped God would save them, but even if He didn’t, they still wouldn’t worship a false god. This was something they simply could not do…ever. In other words, “Sorry, King, but you can do nothing to us unless God permits it – for there is only one God, and it’s not your stupid idol.”
Now, just think about that. Is there anything that you believe in that strongly? Is your faith that rock solid? Do you and I really have the faith of the martyrs – that unbendable faith that leads one to face death joyfully? Would we be willing to climb into that furnace or stand before a firing squad to defend a belief that’s at the very core of our being?
These may sound like simple questions, but they’re not. You see, far too many Christians never ask these questions. And so they never really examine the basis of their faith, why they hold these beliefs.
Blind faith can never see past a simple statement of belief…and because it cannot defend itself, it will likely crumble when questioned. An understanding, reflective faith is the only kind that will hold up under pressure, the only kind that can be freely held.
For our three young men, the issue was clear: they were free to do nothing but uphold the truth, for that is what their faith obliged them to do. They realized that their greatest freedom was in doing God’s will.
Jesus, of course, understood this well. That’s why he could say, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The truth not only sets us free, but we are free only in truth.
Brothers and sisters, our lives are marked by thousands of everyday decisions and actions, but at crucial moments in our lives we are expected to be heroic. Like the three young men in the furnace, if we want to be truly free, we have no other choice. It’s then, when we act in true freedom, that our true selves emerge most fully, most courageously, most divinely.
Do you believe that? Really believe it? I hope so because it’s the truth. And the truth – the truth of that deep divine life we are all called to share -- will set us free.
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