“You have to carry the fire.
I don’t know how to. Yes you do. Is it real? The fire? Yes it is. Where is it? I don’t know where it is? Yes you do. It’s inside you. It was always there. I can see it.”
–“On the Road” written by Cormac McCarthy
I can remember reading “On the Road” by Cormac McCarthy in my twenties. A tale of a father and son on their own in an apocalyptic world that had been reduced to rubble and mayhem. The pair were headed for the ocean but constantly had to be on the look-out for “bad” guys that wanted to hurt them. The father would often solidify with his son their “good” guy status and challenged him to always, “Carry the fire,” of hope, that allowed good to never die.
As I sit here today and my phone alerts me of another crisis being carried out in a shopping mall in Kenya; I feel my heart begin to harden a little at the edges.
My breath catches as I read about the death toll…the same way my breath was caught during the Boston bombings…the Aurora movie theater shooting…Fort Hood…Columbine…911. And it’s not just these events that blister my mind. Issues like healthcare…government…economy…money…oil…job growth…all these things and so much more eat at me more than I would like…and for just a moment I’m reminded of the importance of, Carrying the Fire.
Of course the fire that I speak of is much bigger than a man’s view and metaphor for hope. Its’ a fire that drove John the Baptist to always share Christ with others until the day he was beheaded (Mark 6). It’s a fire that inspired Stephen to pray for his accusers even as they beat him to death with rocks (Acts 7). It’s a fire that pushed Paul to continue preaching the Gospel even while being arrested and thrown in prison multiple times and sometimes years at a time. And it’s a fire that began to roar deep inside us when Jesus took on the sins of the world and willingly gave himself over to be beaten, crucified, and killed for us all.
The fire is the hope of Christ within us…it’s the flame that carries us past the terrorist threats and broken economy. The fire reminds us that if Christ loved us enough to die for us then he certainly loves us enough to bring us beyond the pains, sorrows, and worries of the world today.
The fire is also a representation of the hope for tomorrow. The greatest promise man has ever been given is the promise that if you accept Christ as your Savior then when you someday die you will wake up in Heaven. I don’t know about you but I have some days when I wish I was already there. Sometimes the fierceness and intensity of the world chips away at my heart a little more then it did the day before, and in that moment I long to experience the confines of my eternal home.
But God’s not done with me yet…I still have many years to go and much to accomplish in His name…I’m still carrying the fire and brothers and sisters you are as well!
I encourage all of you…when the world seems to be too much…and you start to feel pressure so tight you can’t breath…please remember why you’re here. As we seek out to live a life of purpose, we must realize that without resistance in life we will never truly grow into the men and women God has called us to be.
A beautiful flower doesn’t magically start that way. It starts as a seed in the earth that must slowly grow and push itself through the resistance of the soil in order to finally reveal itself fully, and take in the warmth of the sun.
Aren’t we doing the same thing in our own lives?
We live to serve and glorify God…we push against the resistance of the world…and we share with those we come in contact with the fire within us that burns away all doubt, and reveals the truth of God’s greatness.
I will carry the fire…will you?
