Fwd: Fire

Yesterday I got a call from a friend of mine.  He told me to bring some marshmallows because his business was burning down.  CRAZY!  I went over to spend some time with him and watch the spectacle.  Five fire trucks, police cars burning strip-mall, if it wasn't my friends business it would have been a pretty cool thing to watch.  There was water running into every drain, tons of firemen everywhere and then there were the spectators.  People just kind of seemed in a trance. Staring, talking in quiet voices, a few crying, some laughing a little jokes they had with each other.   Then they started tearing down the building.  This all happened in about half an hour.

The fire had started the night before and the firefighters thought they had put it out.  However, it was still slowly burning between the roof and the ceiling.  by 2:00 p.m. the next day it erupted all over the roof, Sending spurts of flame up all over the building.  Everyone thought that the fire was over, that the burning had finished.  In reality it had just gone out of sight.  As I thought about this, and talked with my friend, and thought and watched, and thought, i realized this is our life.  we might feel like our fire has gone out. that there is nothing left of the passion for life, God, family, friends,  but it just is slowly burning below the surface waiting for that moment to burst out and take over again.  Boy, I should have brought those marshmallows, they would have been great!

God bless you,

Pastor Nathan