Renewal Fuel

By Pat Russell

I built a fire in the fireplace today. It is cloudy and snowing now and then. I felt like falling asleep in front of the blazing warmth like I used to do when I was a teenager. On Sundays my dad would build a fire in our living room fireplace, turn on the football game – the Detroit Lions – and I would stretch out on the floor, dozing in and out as I listened to the muted sounds of football, my father’ gentle snoring and the crackling of the flames.  Nothing better to renew the soul after a week at school!

As I built the fire today, I followed my father’s instructions on correct fire building, but I forgot one thing:  I needed to create some space between the logs to allow the oxygen to circulate. You cannot get a fire going with logs so packed together that there is no room for the small flame to be nourished by the oxygen making it capable of setting the larger logs on fire. My fire was a fizzle.  So, I took the fireplace tools, adjusted the logs and poof – a flame leaped into action.

So it is with my life. I cannot expect to burn with the fire of the Lord unless I make some room for the oxygen of His Spirit to circulate around me. When my life is packed together with one thing after another, my soul gets smothered. I leave no room for His Oxygen to the feed His flame.

Jesus faced the same temptation. Talk about being smothered!  Luke tells us that CROWDS of people were looking for Jesus. Perhaps they wanted another healing, or some words of comfort, or another miracle of some kind or even him to lead them in a revolution. Whatever the reason, “when they reached him, they wanted to prevent him from leaving them.”  That sure sounds like logs being piled on.

But Jesus told the crowd, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.” He knew what his priorities were. He understood what his purpose in life was. He knew how to keep the flame burning. So how did he do that? Bottom line – he created space between the logs.

What I didn’t tell you was that “At daybreak he departed and went into a deserted place.” That is the key – “departed” (got away from everybody) and “went into a deserted place” (went into solitude and silence). There he could “lie at the feet” of His Father and listen to the sounds of nature and His Father’s living presence – His breathing -- even in the midst of the muted sounds of his active life. That is space around the logs.  That is space for the Heavenly Oxygen to move in and out and around His soul, nourishing the little embers into the flames of warmth and light for the world. And that is why Jesus can tell us that he has come into the world to bring life – more abundant life. He has it and He will show us the way to find it in our lives.

Fire

By Judy Brown

What makes a fire burn

is space between the logs,

a breathing space.

Too much of a good thing,

too many logs

packed in too tight

can douse the flames

almost as surely

as a pail of water.

So building fires

requires attention

to the spaces in between,

as much as to the wood.

When we are able to build

open spaces

in the same way

we have learned

to pile logs,

then we come to see how

it is fuel, and the absence of fuel

together, that makes fire possible.

We only need to lay a log

lightly from time to time.

A fire

grows

simply because the space is there,

with openings

in which the flame

that knows just how it wants to burn

can find its way.

Teaching with Fire:  Poetry that Sustains the Courage to Teach