Travis Collins writes in “What Does It Mean to Be Welcoming?”:<\/p>\n\n
My friend Barry Thomas and I went camping at Sherando Lake a few summers ago. It had been raining, and more rain was forecast, but we thought we could beat the odds. After we set up our tents I was assigned the duty of gathering firewood. Unfortunately, everything was wet because of the rain. I gathered the driest wood I could find, but it wouldn't burn.<\/p>\n\n
Barry was cooking dinner on the Coleman stove, but we wanted a campfire, so we decided I should drive about a mile back to the ranger shack to see if the rangers could point me to where I could buy firewood. On my way out of the campground I noticed another campsite from which campers had recently left and saw a hint of smoke rising from their campfire. "Well, that wood is dry,'' I said to myself. So I pulled in, grabbed a log by its cool end from the fire, and threw it into the back of my truck.<\/p>\n\n
I drove the mile or so down to the ranger shack. When I stopped at the ranger shack I noticed an awful smell and saw smoke. "Oh, no!" I thought, "The ranger shack is on fire!" Then I looked into my rear view mirror … and it wasn't the ranger shack on fire. It was the log in the back of my truck!<\/p>\n\n
As I was driving, the wind had ignited the embers of that log, and it was burning, along with part of the lining of the bed of my pickup! I put the fire out quickly, but the melted rubber in the lining of that pickup truck is still visible—a reminder of a day when I saw smoke and flames and assumed someone else had a real problem—when, in fact, I had a problem<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n <\/h2>","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3458,3477,3559,3596,3661,3664,4192,4623,4633,4714,4769,4913,4919,5057],"tax_ctp_topics":[382],"class_list":["post-38989","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-authenticity","tax_ctp_tags-behavior","tax_ctp_tags-character","tax_ctp_tags-christian-walk","tax_ctp_tags-conduct","tax_ctp_tags-confession-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-humility","tax_ctp_tags-perception","tax_ctp_tags-perspective","tax_ctp_tags-problems","tax_ctp_tags-reality","tax_ctp_tags-self-deception","tax_ctp_tags-self-examination","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-perception"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\n