Ember

Today, I'm inviting you to use this time for self-reflection. This isn't written in my usual prose style, so give yourself space to read slowly and prayerfully, as we allow God to search us, know our hearts, and lead us in the way everlasting. 

This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 
- 2 Timothy 1:6-7

“Fan into flames”, a holy task
a request made that hints at a truth
a truth often ignored for the task it requires. 
And the truth is this: the flame isn’t there yet. 
Only the spark is given. 
An ember, a coal. Hot, yet not fiery. 
And the task is this: to hold onto the gift,
     and to help it grow
     with breath, fan, movement… effort. 
How am I at fanning the gift? 
What exactly am I fanning?
Is it the gift God gave me? 
What flames are the ones beginning to lick the kindling? 

I feel the burning, yes. 
But what is it that causes the flame? 
Because my mind is more captured by the news notifications,
Than by the notification of the Good News.

I love the words of John the Baptist, crying out
‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!’
‘Produce fruit in keeping with repentance!’
But I admit, I like it more when I say it, 
     than when it is said to me. 

I feel the burning, yes. 
But what is it that causes the flame? 
Because the gift will not grow through scrolling
it will not grow from smug assumptions
it will not grow from proving how right I am.

Because the gift isn’t whatever I want it to be. 
The gift, the spark, the ember
     is the Spirit of Christ.
This gift always grows into love. Into self control. 
Into power, but not power in the way of empire. 

Power in the way of the lamb
     who lays down its life to change the world for good.  
Power that is not concerned with protecting itself 
Nearly as much as caring for the neighbor, 
    the widow, the orphan, the outsider. 

So the flame that will burn for all time in me
Is not a flame that destroys, 
but one that softens, even the hardest metal
The kind of metal that the heart can become
If it’s not the Spirit of Christ that is fanned into flame. 

I feel the burning, yes. 
But what is it that causes the flame? 
What is the Church for whom Jesus died? 
What is the community that declares ‘Jesus is Lord’
    (and Caesar is not)?  
What is it if we declare Jesus is on our side, 
    and yet he must be disguised so well, 
    for he is unrecognizable. 

The holy task is to fan into flame
the gift of Jesus and his calling to be forever changed 
    so that we see the world through the eyes of the Father.
So that we will be known by our Love.
Will we fan it slowly, carefully, with deep breaths
    taken in the Spirit, in humility, in prayer 
and blown upon the coals with wisdom and truth in our hearts? 
Will we keep finding the breath to give light to this little coal
    when all around us 
        matchbooks and powder kegs are calling 
            like sirens. 

I feel the burning, yes. 
But what is it that causes the flame? 

Jesus, capture our hearts. 

Peace,
Keith