This tragic and terrible happening does not frighten me, but rather makes me regird myself with the armor of God. I love that because when we radically follow Jesus, whatever God does in our lives, even if it seems like a tragedy, inspires others to say, I'm removing my safety cones. I'm going after Jesus. Gladys Elward is a missionary hero of mine. She has so many instances in her life of removing safety cones. One of the earliest ones is when she was working as a parlor made in England and she had a vision to go to China as a missionary, but had no money. She was scraping together every bit of money that she could earn. She had these very comfortable work shoes because she worked as a maid and was on her feet every day, but she saw an opportunity to sell those shoes. And so she went and sold those comfortable work shoes, put the money towards China and wore these two left shoes all the way until she went to China. And again, removing the safety cone of comfort right there to say, Lord, nothing's going to hold me back. If you're calling me to China, I will make any sacrifice to get there. If you study her life, there are so many other stories. One was that that really stands out to me is when she was in China, she was asked to stop a riot at a men's prison where they were killing each other. Now she's this little short lady and just completely on her own. And they said, do you have the power of God? You have the living God inside of you. So come stop this riot and to get out of her comfort zone. I mean, I can't even imagine how many safety cones had to be removed for her to go into the midst of a riot where these huge men were killing each other and clubbing each other to death. And she's a short little lady with no support. And she just went in there in the strength of God and was able to stop that riot. She also led hundreds of children over a mountain pass to safety in the middle of a war. And again, totally outside of her comfort zone. But because of her willingness to remove her safety cones, she was so mightily used by God. There really wasn't anything extraordinary or special about her. She was simply willing to remove safety cones. And in fact, she herself said that at the end of her life, she said, I wasn't God's first choice for what I've done for China. I don't know who it was. Maybe a man, a well educated man. I don't know what happened. Maybe he died. Maybe he wasn't willing. And God looked down and saw Gladys Selward and said, well, she's willing. I love that. It's so encouraging because it shows us you don't have to be this super Christian in order to remove safety cones and let God work powerfully through you. Each one of us can ask God for that willingness. William Booth, who was the co-founder of the Salvation Army, he challenged Christians out of their comfort zones by saying words like these, not called, did you say? Not heard the call, I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity and listen to its pitiful whale for help. Go stand by the gates of hell and hear the damned and treat you to go to their father's house, and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there, and then look Christ in the face who's mercy you profess to obey. And tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world. I love that because we can't hide the behind that excuse. Oh, I'm just not called. I'm not called to a life of radical givenness to Christ. I'm not called to share the gospel with those around me. All of us are called. And William Booth is saying, if you think you're not called, it's just that you have not heard the call yet. If you really come face to face with what who Jesus is, what he's done for you and what he calls you to, you can't say no to that calling. We don't have a lot of excuses to keep up our safety codes when we hear stories like these and words like these. Here is the key truth. God is calling us, each of us in such a time as this, to say, Lord, take away my safety cones. Are we listening? The time is short. What are we living for? Are we living for this life or eternity? And there's that famous quote by CT stud that just can fix me every time I hear it. Only one life, it will soon be passed only what's done for Christ will last.