the Firefighter's prayer

 we live in Asia, so tend to watch a lot of Korean dramas: romance, ghosts, class vs class, etc.

So there we were watching an old (2010) K drama The Secret Garden, where an uberrich guy switches souls with a lower class lady stuntman. There are usually historical reasons for these things in K dramas: and it turns out that the lady's father rescued the guy from a fire and when the fireman realized he wouldn't make it, told the rich guy to take care of his daughter, but the rich guy developed PTSS and blocked out the memory, so the father's ghost brought them together years late to do this.

Silly, but hey, it's a drama.

But in the midst of the story, there is a flashback to the man's rescue, and the narrator, presumably the fireman is saying the Fireman's prayer as they search for survivors. (49 minutes into the drama):

..

This surprised me for two reasons;

One, because American dramas censor any reference to God, but in a secular Korea, the shamans and priests and religious icons are just part of the cultural background in these dramas.

The second reason it surprised me is that the Fireman's Prayer is known in Korea: the history of that prayer can be read here..

https://www.eldoradocountyfire.com/last-alarm/firemans-prayer/

Sigh.

On 9-11, over 300 firemen and police lost their lives trying to rescue survivors. One does not hear about that type of thing nowadays, because of the political push to make Americans hate each other, especially to hate police, firemen, security guards, military personnel, etc. who work to protect folks' lives and property.

Police like Captain Dorn.

..

..sigh.

years ago we were taught:

That we were put on earth to Know, love and serve God in this world. 

And that every action in our ordinary life, done with love, is a prayer.

I was lucky enough to be a physician, and knew that doing this was in imitation of Jesus the Healer, but in the world, any job done for love of God is also a prayer that heals us and those around us.

That we were his hands here in the world. And that all of us: Artists, mothers and fathers, retired old ladies, doctors, cops, office workers, farmers, street cleaners,  shop keepers, etc. are part of his work."

Because what we do for the "least of our Brethren" is the same as doing it for Jesus.

painter: Joey Velasco.

________

Update. Fireman finds young daughter's body in ruins of condo collapse.

https://nypost.com/2021/07/02/firefighter-finds-daughter-in-rubble-at-florida-condo-collapse/