Fire

A fire cooks food, warms a person, provides light. It also burns and kills. I’ve experienced the burning and scaring part of fire and now I want to sit close to the blaze of the Sacred Heart and feel its warmth cooking me back into life -- so I can feed myself and others with the flames.

Fire was a theme for today beginning with a 3:47 a.m. text from my neighbor.

“Did the sparks and popping wake you? Probably a branch against wires. I hear the fire siren. They might be for this. House is NOT on fire!” …Thank God.

Luckily, I slept through it all and didn’t read the text until I woke up.

The story of the Burning Bush was the second fire reference of the day. My students are learning about the prophets, the first of which is Moses – who experienced the Lord in a bush, burning profusely but not consumed.

After I read the Burning Bush story to my class, I asked the students what they thought. 

One girl exclaimed, “Now I know God’s name: I am who am!” 

A boy sat still pondering awhile –he didn’t understand how the bush stayed a bush instead of disintegrating to ash.

Another little girl audaciously announced how she really felt: “Wow that was a long time. Did I miss anything? Is it time to wake up yet?”

I slept through a fire siren and nearby commotion last night, so I could relate to this little one missing the details. But it didn’t feel like a long time to me—I wished I could have slept in just a bit longer.

More importantly, am I awake now? And is my fire burning slowly without turning to ash?

What kind of fires have I experienced in my life? Camp fires, candle flames, kids fooling around with Bunsen burners in high school chemistry, and one incredible bonfire on the bank of the Jordan River in Israel.

The light of that fire illumined the scares of many other life burns. A priest heard my confession on that riverbank and I burned the paper on which I had written my sins. It was a purifying and healing fire near the lowest point on earth, the Dead Sea. It’s remarkable that my Savior would humble Himself to be baptized at such a location.

Why do I need fire? Because I want zeal for HIS house to consume me, because I need purification, because I need warmth, because I need healing.

The song “Set a Fire” by Will Reagan speaks to my desire for this fire and my need for God to set it: “There’s no place I’d rather be… Set a fire down in my soul that I can’t contain that I can’t control. I want more of you, God.”

Moses might have sang a similar song at the bush. When God told Moses his mission to set free the Israelites, he felt inadequate, maybe scared, maybe totally blown away…“Who am I?” Moses asks.

God answers the emptiness of Moses’ “I” with the fullness of His presence. “I am who am.” “I will be with you.”

That “I” is enough to burn “me” up. Lord, set “me” on fire! In a way that only you can control.