Campfire

::mood::comfortable
::music::yes, please

Virtually everything I own smells like smoke. Campfire smoke. Whether I open my bible, play my guitar, do my laundry, or read some more of the book I'm in...it all gives of that no-so-faint reminder of where its been.

Its all 'cause I took those things with me this past weekend. Took them with me to get away. Away where my cell phone was off. Miles away from my computer. And internet. Where my iPod was shut off. And noone else was around to clamber for my concentration.

I got alone.

With God.

I did a lot of reading, and singing, and thinking, and staying by the fire to keep warm. It got me thinking:

As cold as it was out there, there was no way I was going to leave my fire, much less, let it go out. Perhaps for some time, I left to go walk in the sun. But I always came back to tend to the fire; to feed it more wood; and make sure it wasn't going out. It kept me warm, and alive.

I think that's the way it is with life. There's a great big world out there. A cold, and hard, and unforgiving world. A world striving to sap the very last bit of energy from my being. A world trying to stiffen my joints and render me ineffective. But right here, inside me burning, is the fire of Christ living in me. I might not always realize it, but He's there to keep me warm. To keep me useful. To keep me alive.

I've got to realize that, and always keep coming back to His presence. Always dwell in the glow of His warmth so that I'm full of His strength, and passion, and able to live effectively. He's there. I just have to nurture that relationship. And He'll offer all the warmth I can stand.

"'...when I send My four severe judgments against Jerusalem:
sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague
to cut off man and beast from it!
Yet, behold, survivors will be left in it
who will be brought out,
both sons and daughters.

Behold, they are going to come forth to you
and you will see their conduct and actions;
then you will be comforted for the calamity
which I have brought against Jerusalem
for everything which I have brought upon it.

Then they will comfort you
when you see their conduct and actions,
for you will know that I have not done in vain
whatever I did to it,'
declares the Lord God."

Ezekiel 14:21-23, The Bible