FUEL

I recall watching a show once where they were showing people ways of doing something creative to celebrate the holidays. Their idea was to use special logs in the fireplace that when burnt would give off different colored flames. It was an interesting idea although not necessarily useful for those of us without fireplaces.

Still there was a basic thought that came to me out of that experience. Energy does require fuel. Plus with some forms of energy it ends with light.

Thus it is with our spiritual lives. They require fuel. We can use our version, whatever works for us from church life to special devotionals or we can use the fuel that God provides. It will all give off a light, but only the fuel God provides will cast off a light where Jesus shines.

The problem is sometimes the fuel isn’t something we will recognize. For God sees deep into the recesses of our furnace in our hearts. He knows what will burn best and what will produce the light that he desires. So he will put us in a position where that fuel in terms of opportunity or experience comes into our lives and will produce the energy from what part of our life and being truly serves his purposes.

It is simple enough, to a degree at least. However the hard part is appreciating that with the Lord the part of our life, that ‘furnace’ if you will that he wants to ignite may not be the one we assume he wants to use. We may be good at some given talent. But that might not be the one God wants to use.

Sometimes that is because he has a specific light he wants to shine from our lives that serves his purpose. It might be in an area of our abilities that we don’t even imagine is of any value to God. If we resist or try to second guess the Lord in that regard we can refuse a fuel he wants us to use because we don’t think it will burnt as bright or in the color we want. That’s taking too much pride in our furnace and not be willing to listen to his will.

Each spark from a heavenly laid form of kindling will create not just light, but also smoke. That is the part, which might get missed in our vision. However it is the smoke of faith, the vapor of obedience. It will ascend to heaven where it is see by eternal eyes.

On that day of reunion the smoke will at last turn to gold and we shall see the true fuel for what it really was. In the meantime, we struggle with finding the fuel and making sure our furnaces work as needed.

This is a process that is never completed in this life. It is part of our being whether we like it or not. And it just becomes a question of how willing we are to see what God calls fuel as something that will truly burn in our furnace. Hopefully we have eyes to see what burns the brightest in heaven more than what only shines for a while in this life. Sometimes the eyes of the soul can be blurred by the seeing only with the eyes of the heart.