Better Safe than Sorry

January 25th, 2009 |

On Wednesdays I “meet and eat” with a bunch of guys from church plus one. The plus one is Brandon Ullrich, whom we still consider one of our own even though he has left our fold to shepherd another flock. It’s a time I look forward to each week. We rotate going to several local eateries. In selecting our location, we have discovered that the menu is not as important as the setting. We need a place that can accommodate our group, which is sometimes large and always loud. I prefer that we not be thrown out, so we try to choose our site wisely. Last week we returned to one of our spots. As is so often the case, our arrival times were staggered. We were just getting settled in with our hungry appetites when suddenly, we were bombarded with a loud noise and strobing lights. The fire alarm was going off. Now you would think a table full of grown, fairly educated men would respond rather quickly to a fire alarm. However, you would be wrong. We just kept talking. We were enjoying the conversations and were looking forward to the meal, so we just kept right on sitting there. We did not smell smoke or see a fire, so it must just be a false alarm. The sound made it a little hard to talk, but that did not deter us. I was still looking over the menu when our server came over to our table and herded us out the door. I suppose there’s something about a fire code that if the alarm goes off, you must exit the building. Who would have thought? Anyway, we got outside and stood around in the cold, hoping to go back in soon. A few other patrons gave up and decided to go somewhere else, but our group held our ground. Sure enough, it was a false alarm and after about 15 minutes, we were ushered back in. We were given no explanation, no apology, and no discount for our troubles, but all that did little to dampen our spirits. It was only later that I realized how foolish we were for not responding to the fire alarm that had obviously been put there for our safety. For whatever reason, we chose to ignore the warning. True, it was a false alarm, but we had no way of knowing that at the time. What alarms are you ignoring today? Maybe you are preoccupied with other things or maybe you think that if you just ignore them they will eventually go away. You might consider responding to God’s warnings today. They are never false.

Better safe than sorry,