Don't you love to hang out with Christians who are on fire? I'm not speaking of the pseudo-hype nor of the attention-drawing vocal. Rather, I address those who seem to burn with drive, determination, and destiny. I want my family to be around such a valuable sort.
Henri Nouwen targets our call to live fully alive. What needs to be guarded is the life of the Spirit within us. Especially we who want to witness to the presence of God's Spirit in the world need to tend the fire within with utmost care. It is not so strange that many ministers have become burnt-out cases, people who say many words and share many experiences, but in whom the fire of God's Spirit has died and from whom not much more comes forth than their own boring, petty ideas and feelings. Sometimes it seems that our many words are more an expression of our doubt than our faith. It is as if we are not sure that God's Spirit can touch the hearts of people: we have to help him out and, with many words, convince others of his power. But it is precisely this wordy unbelief that quenches the fire.
A part of the man-following-God issue is whether we are tending the fire. It truly takes faith eyes to watch patiently for Him to open the doors and provide the power to pull off a good day's work. Man tends to want to inject his I-can-fix-it-I-think trade. The trek will be strenuously uphill when working from our own spirit-muscle rather than relaxing in the Holy Spirit trend.
Try not to be sucked into the down-draft of making things work on your own. Rather, move from the Martha tendency to the Mary accuracy. Enjoy God. Sit in His presence. Allow Him to stoke the fire.
Burn-out comes from using up all of the energy we can muster; and we just can't exert will-power in the big stuff for very long. Keep learning to lean in upon His heart.
Hear it beat. Relax. Enjoy.
Let God be the one who runs this spectacular show!
No comments:
Post a Comment