A Fur Coat or a Fire

There’s an old saying: when it’s cold outside, you can either put on a fur coat — or make a fire.

One keeps you warm.

The other changes the environment.

The Hasidic rabbis once described Noah as “a righteous man in a fur coat.” He was faithful and obedient — righteous in his generation — yet when the world grew cold and evil, his focus was on preserving himself and his household rather than changing the temperature around him. The result was that he was spared while humanity around him perished.

It’s an unsettling image.

I remember the first staff meeting I ever led. I had recently stepped into a leadership role and was now sitting across from people who had been my peers only days earlier. As the meeting began, a single thought consumed me with unexpected weight:

I am responsible for these people now.

That realization was so overwhelming it triggered a panic attack — right there, mid-meeting. Not a great first impression! I didn’t doubt my own competence, but I suddenly understood what was at stake. If I got this wrong, people wouldn’t just be inconvenienced. They could be hurt.

That moment changed how I understood responsible leadership.

It’s one thing to survive difficult conditions with integrity. It’s another to notice who else is freezing.

Morality can function like a fur coat. It protects my faith, my conscience, my sense of being “good.” But there comes a point when the more important question is not “How am I holding up?” but “What kind of environment am I helping to create?”

As we quickly approach Christmas, this distinction becomes even more poignant.

God did not respond to a cold and broken world by remaining distant and insulated in His own perfection. He stepped into the mess. The Incarnation is not God putting on a coat — it is God lighting a fire.

Jesus did not merely remain pure; He became present. He did not stand apart from human suffering; He entered it. And in doing so, He changed the temperature of everything.

Sometimes a fur coat is necessary. Survival matters. Faithfulness matters.

But there are moments when simply staying warm is not enough.

Here is my question for this week:

Am I content just to be righteous in my own life — or am I willing to take responsibility for the warmth of those around me?