You are building something right now. Make sure some of it survives the fire.

The fire test is not a threat. It's a clarifier.

1 Corinthians 3:13 describes a day when the quality of every person's work will be revealed — not hidden, not forgotten, not lost in the volume of a lifetime's output. Revealed. Tested. Shown for what it actually is.

What survives? Paul describes it as work built with gold, silver, and precious stones — the eternal materials. Faithfulness. Integrity. Love. People invested in. Truth upheld. Obedience in the unseen places.

What burns? Wood, hay, straw — the impressive but impermanent. The achievements that were only for this world.

Michael had spent his career building both. As he entered his fifties, the fire test framework became his most useful lens for evaluating what deserved his energy.

Not to abandon results — but to ensure that his highest investment was in the things that would survive the fire. The people he was developing. The character he was building in private. The faithfulness he was practicing in the ordinary days.

The fire test is generous: it rewards what was truly built, regardless of how visible it was. The quiet faithful professional and the celebrated industry leader get evaluated on the same criteria.

Apply the fire test to your current priorities. What you're spending the most energy on — will it survive? What's the most eternal thing you could invest in this week?

Father, give me the eternal perspective to build with the right materials. Let my highest investment be in what survives — faithfulness, people, integrity, obedience. Let my work honor You on the Day it's tested.

In Jesus' name, Amen.