Presently, all of us are trying to gain a handle on the epic events which came crashing into our lives on September 11, 2001. We have come to understand this wasn't a Hollywood make-believe adventure flick. This was the worst-case scenario of every disaster movie ever to hit the wide screen.

Suddenly, oh so swiftly, the world became smaller and scarier for each of us. On a personal level, Americans have not been struck so deeply in their collective national psyche since the attack on Pearl Harbor nearly 60 years ago. It is the first time that the mainland of "fortress America" has been struck a formidable blow by a foreign foe since the War of 1812.

September 11 was a day of villains, victims and heroes. At times such as these, there is often a precariously thin line between death and survival. This thin line is often drawn by the actions of men and women who dare to step forward to make a difference.

Early on that Tuesday morning, 300 firefighters who marched into "terrorist hell" would not be walking out. They belonged to the family of firefighters that is often called "New York's finest." Because of the life and death adversity that lies around the corner for each of them, there is indeed a familial bond among them. Something understood. Something that is theirs alone.

On this morning of heroes, they raced through the glass and concrete canyons of Wall Street, knowing that they were going up against a "big one." Every fireman's worst nightmare is fire in a skyscraper. So much can happen so quickly, and it can happen to you! Yet on this morning, many a fireman coming off the night shift willingly hopped on his company's fire engine.

Little did they know it would be their last shift.

But on they went! Why? You see, when your calling is to preserve life, you come to understand that not only does every moment count, but you truly are on call every moment. So down the narrow lanes of the financial district came this band of brothers hailing from Brooklyn and Queens, from the Bronx and Harlem, from the Lower East Side and Staten Island. Black and brown, Irish and Puerto Rican, Jew and Italian, these New Yorkers marched forward with one thing in mind-there was a job to do.

Simply going up!

I was struck by the comment of one official, who stated that the job of a fireman is "to run toward fire, while everyone else is running away." Amazingly, our exit trails in times of adversity are their entrance steps into what they have been trained and are willing to do. You see, firemen have a potentially "blind date" with death every day. Retired General Norman Schwarzkopf, no stranger to danger, once put it this way in speaking of combat: "death places the mind in a wondrous focus, and then, the training takes over!"

I couldn't help but be struck by a comment from a World Trade Center survivor. The older lady was sharing how she slowly made her way down the crowded stairway, only to find as she was going down, there were individuals climbing up the stairs. As she put it, "good-looking young men, strong and steady, with equipment on their backs, simply going up!"

We now know they all came back down, too soon, dead.

Standing in the gap between life and death is not for the faint of heart or for those who wonder about their mission. Nearly 3,500 years ago, two men responded to the call of what we might say was the equivalent of a five-alarm fire. Numbers 16 tells us how the people of Israel had been turned against God by Korah and his associates. By their own actions and attitudes, the children of Israel had brought upon themselves the wrathful curse of God. He withdrew His blessings. People were dying in droves, and who knew exactly what was going to come next?

Numbers 16:44-48 is very telling about the inner values of two special men. "And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.' And [Moses and Aaron] fell on their faces. So Moses said to Aaron, 'Take a censer and put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, and take it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them; for wrath has gone out from the LORD. The plague has begun.' Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the assembly; and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped."

These two heroes of the Bible stood their ground in the face of overwhelming opposition. For Aaron, it would have been so easy to run the other way. But he didn't! While others assuredly "high-tailed" it out of there to save their own skins, these two men worked with a plan. The plan is all about being life preservers.

Courageous fear

Was Aaron afraid as he stepped forward? I'm sure he was, for courage is often just "fear moving forward, having said its prayers." Nonetheless, on he went! How was he able to move forward in this time of crisis? His values were bigger than the moment. You see, we don't discover our values in times of trial; we take them into the time of trial with us. Were the knees of the firemen shaking on September 11? I'm sure they were, but their goal was bigger than their "shakes," as they, too, stood between life and death. Perhaps President Bush said it best a day later: "Adversity introduces us to ourselves."

What do a deceased Irish-American firefighter from Queens, Moses and Aaron have in common with you and me? Just like the firemen of New York City, our challenge as Christians is to move toward the crisis ahead, not to run away from it. For indeed, when reality sets in, there really is no running away. Like Moses and Aaron, we should be willing to stand in the gap for people who have made wrong choices-the gap between life and death. We understand that troubles are going to come, because of this nation's disobedience toward God. But we do not rejoice. Rather we hurt; we suffer at the loss of life. We, too, race down a canyon of destiny, not really knowing all of the demands that will be placed upon us. Revelation 12:11 describes Christians as those who "did not love their lives to the death."

"The Christian fireman"

If you have never taken the opportunity to read through 2 Timothy 2, I suggest you give it a read. As you move through Paul's encouragement to "endure hardship" found in 2 Timothy 2:3, he goes on to describe the good Christian soldier, the Christian athlete and the Christian farmer. He then says, "consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things" (2 Timothy 2:7).

Paul challenges us to "consider" and build on his statements regarding examples of steadfastness and endurance. Well, I have come to understand that I, too, must more than ever endure hardship as the good Christian firefighter whose job is to set my focus on "running toward the flame" of adversity in a world that is smoldering in hatred. But not simply to endure, but to embrace the needs of others. And no, it will not necessarily be a five-alarm fire, or look like a skyscraper. I must recognize that the "ground zero" God has granted me to approach is within my orb of responsibility.

On September 11, I learned that the most important equipment that a fireman carries is not his hose or his ax or his ladder. The most important piece of equipment is his heart.

Without "the heart" of a fireman, all the other paraphernalia is meaningless. Without heart, the fireman is never able to go into the life-and-death combat of his daily routine. But with heart, all things are possible. Christ cut right to the heart of the matter long ago regarding the kind of person He was looking to recruit as a "Christian fireman." He said in Mark 8:35, "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it."

On September 11, the powerful message of Isaiah 30:21 came to me in a very real sense in the form of a Brooklyn accent out of the smoke of a darkened hallway saying, "This is the way, walk you in it." It was the voice of a fireman. That voice is now silenced, but hopefully the thought still lives inside me as I move toward a different type of flame, knowing why and for whom I live. When the smoke clears from this particular tragedy, I must be prepared to move step by step in one direction. Up!