Our church is involved in developing a Community Emergency Response Team. A CERT team is a group of volunteers organized and trained primarily to help with various tasks in order to assist professional responders during critical times. This frees the first responders to focus on more critical and complex operations.
This past weekend we were involved in training for the CERT team at Sampson Community College, taking several hours of instruction. Part of the training involved hands-on use of a fire extinguisher. Each team member had to use an extinguisher to put out a small fire. Using the fire extinguisher was simple, but it was important to use it correctly. But using it brought back a memory of using a fire extinguisher a long time ago. And it’s not a pleasant memory, because I didn’t use it correctly.
I think I was in around the ninth grade back at Clement High School. A few of us guys were hanging around in the gym. I’m not certain what was going on. As we were horsing around, one of my buddies dared me to see how heavy the fire extinguisher was that was hanging on a post near the gym floor. Once dared, you always had to respond, no matter how stupid the dare may have seemed. So I pushed up hard on the long canister fire extinguisher, thinking that it must be heavy.
It was not. The fire extinguisher came flying out of the rack that was holding it and fell sharply to the floor. That was bad. What followed was worse. The jolt of it hitting the floor caused the foam to start pouring out of the fire extinguisher. The foam was going everywhere. Of course, my friends, being true friends, were laughing and offered no help at all. I grabbed the extinguisher and tried to turn it off, but I couldn’t. The foam was pouring out of the nozzle. I turned around with the extinguisher and with the nozzle in my hand, not realizing that someone was coming up to try to help me. As I turned around, the foam coming out of the fire extinguisher sprayed on that person, and got the foam on his jacket. That person was Mr. Gillis, the principal.
Yes, I had just sprayed the principal with fire extinguisher foam. I was in trouble. I may not have meant to, but I was in trouble. Not only had I made a mess with the fire extinguisher, (I cleaned it up the best I could) but I had ruined Mr. Gillis’ jacket. Obviously, my parents were not thrilled when I told them. I knew I would have to pay whatever the cost of the jacket out of my own pocket.
After a night of little sleep, I went the next day to the principal’s office to meet with Mr. Gillis. He told me he knew I didn’t mean to do it, but that I should have known better. Then he told me not to worry about his jacket, that it was old and he needed a new one. I deserved to at least pay for his jacket. He showed me mercy that day, and I have never forgotten.
I’ve heard mercy defined as not getting what you deserve. There are probably people around you that could use some mercy, similar to that Mr. Gillis showed me. Showing mercy does not excuse actions, attitudes, etc. But it chooses not to respond negatively in consideration of the other person. You may feel that they probably don’t deserve it. But there have been times you didn’t deserve it, either. Remember, we’re all fallen people living in a fallen world. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) So, like Mr. Gillis, show them some mercy.
Also, and I hope you never need it, if you have to use a fire extinguisher, be careful where you aim it.