Do You Burn?

I love being the person who tends the fire whether it for cleaning up the yard, sitting at a campsite or even at a firepit. I am not sure if it is a control thing or if I just find such clarity in looking into the flames. Fire can be beautiful or horrifying to watch depending on what side of the flame you are on. Fire can purify or destroy. Fire can bring warmth to a cold body or destruction and pain if you get to close to it. Metaphorically speaking people and wood are a lot alike. Some wood catches and burns red hot for a minute and then flutters away as ash in the wind. Some wood gets warm and even shows some signs of being in a fire but doesn’t actually catch because it is too hard at its core or to soaked in other things to burn. But then some wood was meant for burning… it will catch with proper tending… it will burn and maintain a nice HOT steady temperature and then turn into the perfect fuel that can be used to start other wood burning. In this picture there were all 3 types of wood. I pulled a piece of that “wouldn’t” burn wood out to show that while it had been in the fire the same about of time as all the rest it appears almost completely untouched because it was too hard to burn. The red hot quick catch wood turned to ash and flew away in a matter of minutes on the wind. What you don’t actually “see” however is a section of wood that I used to get the back side of my fire to finally catch… it was a 12-16-inch piece of wood that had turned into the perfect starter piece that I gently moved to the back area that had not caught yet and placed it there with a few pieces of the red hot quick wood… and BAM a roaring fire took hold. DID you catch that…. Even that flighty red hot burn and gone wood had its place in my fire pile. Fire is a very important creature, but it must be nurtured, maintained and understood. And then after you have set the boundaries of the fire pit there is a time of standing back and letting it have its way as it completes its task. My question to you today is do you have a fire of any kind burning in you? If so what kind of fire is it? Is it a useful or dangerous fire? As for me… let me be real clear…. If the fire in me is not from GOD… I don’t need it and I DON’T WANT IT. I must be vigilant in monitoring what goes in my fire pile and vigilant in allowing Holy Spirit to tend it. I must be vigilant in who I allow in my life as well as what I allow in my mind and spirit. So once again I ask you, what fire is burning in you and who is tending it?