Wind, wind

Slowly the flame creeps across the surface of the scrunched up newspaper. If it’s scrunched up too tightly, the flame dies back to glowing embers: no chance of it gathering enough heat to actually flare and light the coal. I hold a paper over the opening, funnelling the draught so that it begins to blow the embers into occasional flares.

Smoke swirls round the kindling, over and through and under until suddenly, voila! The crackle of the wood as it catches. The heat builds and the larger wood sizzles and pops, then the coal. 

Wind, wind blow on me. The blessed Holy Spirit, described as wind, as fire. Where in my life do I see the smoke but am not experiencing the fire? Am I too scrunched up in anxiety or concerns for the Spirit’s fire to flame? How can I increase the draught so that the power of the Spirit breaks out in me, and through me?

Seek my face, says the Lord. Seek my face. As I seek his face, my heart warms. As I surrender to his love, my mind is transformed. As I rejoice in this, the day he has made, the Spirit breaks through.

Jesus has gone ahead to prepare a place – not just an eternal place, but today’s place, just for me. I want to trust in him. Help me, Lord, to do that.

Slow to catch fire

The fire was set well. Rolled newspapers surmounted with kindling wood, and a few bits of coal to get it going.

The paper caught but then fizzled. The wood didn’t even sizzle. I did the trick which often works – create a draft by stretching a newspaper across the top of the opening to the fireplace, funnelling the air underneath and acting as a blower. Yes, dangerous.

This time the newspaper I used caught fire and I had to stuff it all in on top of the wood, where it acted like a blanket.

Now I’ve spent an hour nursing this pathetic flame to life. It is finally showing some signs of having caught, but it has made me think.

Why does some wood – which is supposed to be easily lit – need so much help to catch fire? Why does it not catch despite newspaper all around it blazing away?

Why do some people – even those sitting in church – need so much help to catch fire? Why don’t they blaze into flame when they are so close to others who are on fire for God? 

Sometimes perhaps they are dampened down by the residual ash of previous experiences. Memories of spiritual highs which went bad maybe hinder their flammability. Maybe they’ve been dampened by the world’s ideas and expectations. Faith has grown cold. Hope has died. Cynicism and worldliness have killed the fire.

Maybe those around them are not hot enough. Maybe they aren’t fanning into flame the hope planted within them, the fire of the Holy Spirit. Maybe, having met with negative reactions or rejection, they’ve decided to keep the Spirit just about alive but not ‘hot’ enough to be noticed, rather than be mocked or ignored any more. 

Paul writes to Timothy, ‘fan into flame the gift of God’. The fire in my grate is beginning to catch. I’m going to fan into flame the gift God has given me – his Holy Spirit. How about you?