Tornado Of Fire

Dear Son,

Some of the most memorable experiences of my life came while out in the wilderness with my friends on Boy Scout trips as a teenager. Though there were always adults with us, those trips always had a Lord of the Flies feel to them. We were a bunch of young teenage boys out in the middle of nowhere with no parents for miles and miles. And from time to time we put ourselves in dangerous situations. Luckily, despite our stupidity, we always managed to make it out alive. And, I think, a little bit stronger for what we had put ourselves through.

Over the six years I spent as a Boy Scout, my friends and I had a number of close calls. But probably the most poignant of these took place between Washington State and Canada in the San Juan Islands.

For about a week we spent our days paddling sea kayaks from island to island and spent our nights building fires, cooking dinner, playing football and stealing each other’s tent poles. Some of the islands were bigger than others but each one was beautiful. It was amazing to float out there in the middle of the ocean by myself in that little kayak.

About the third or fourth night we landed in a cove of a very small island and made camp. It probably took about 25 minutes to walk around the shore of the entire thing. Our troop set up on one side and there were a few other campers scattered around other parts of the island. As soon as we got our tents set up a few of us took off to explore our new world. When we reached the far side of the island we hit the jackpot. A huge pine tree towered over us. There were no branches for the first 10 feet or so, but then very large branches shot out, intertwining with the branches of all the other trees on the island. At this point you may be asking why we were so excited about a big tree, well I’ll tell you. Sap. About four feet up from the ground the tree was dripping sap in a steady stream all the way down to the ground where it formed a pool.

Now, as any good boy scout knows, sap is a great fire starter. So of course the small group of us gathered around the puddle and lit it on fire. Flames quickly shot up out of the sap at the base of the tree. We couldn’t have hoped for a better result. Somehow the small group of us standing in a semicircle created the perfect wind conditions to turn the dancing flames into a small tornado of fire. I’m telling you it was awesome. I imagine it was similar to the pillar of fire described in Exodus, but on a much smaller scale.

We stood there mesmerized by the funnel of flames, but while we were focused on the unexpected phenomenon, other flames started working their way up the trunk of the tree. As I took notice of the rising flames, I reluctantly suggested that we should probably put it all out before it climbed too far up the tree. But one of my friends said, “No, we’ll wait until the flames get to right here.” We all agreed and continued enjoying the show.

But then all of the sudden the flames raced up the trunk of the tree until they were at eye level with us. In a matter of moments the situation got real serious, we all knew that if the flames made it up another five or six feet they would reach the branches and spread to all the other trees on the island. If we didn’t hurry and put out the fire we would be responsible for burning down the entire island. So we desperately grabbed handfuls of dirt to throw at the flames, we kicked at the tree trunk in hopes of smothering the fire. You see, we all said “We’ll put it out when the flames get right here.” But none of us really thought about HOW we would put them out. I ran down to the beach and filled up a container with water and splashed it on the tree, it slowed the flames some but after a few of us tried this repeatedly it became clear that it would not be enough to stop the fire completely.
Some terrible scenarios began running through my mind. I thought of all the damage we had caused, I thought about how much trouble we would get in and I thought how foolish we had been. Just as I was giving up all hope, one of my friends had the presence of mind to take his shirt off, soak it in the water and beat it against the tree. He had to soak the shirt and beat the fire more than once but eventually he put all the flames out and a disaster was averted. But my friend’s shirt was destroyed and we all knew how close we had come to disaster.

Throughout your life you will be tempted to play with fire. You will also be tempted to tell yourself, “I’ll wait to put the flames out until they get right there.” Many things in this life are as unpredictable and hard to control as fire. You will be tempted to cheat just enough to get ahead. You will be tempted to experiment with drugs, alcohol, pornography and other addictive activities. You might be tempted to steal just a little bit, or just tell a few lies here and there.

If you give in to temptation and try these things it will probably even seem really cool and exciting at first just like our Tornado of Fire. But I promise you, that before you know what’s going on, those flames will rage out of control and threaten to burn down your world. When we knowingly allow flames to rage in our lives it is only through making sacrifices, like my friends shirt, that we can extinguish the flames and avert disaster.

Son, I hope that this story will serve as a warning to you about the things that you choose to let into your life. When you are faced with difficult decisions, remember that there is a tree somewhere in the San Juan Islands with a charred black trunk standing as a witness of how quickly life can spiral out of your control.