I am in the midst of a new study; Restless: Because You Were Made For More.  Now, the author, Jennie Allen, leaves the third chapter with a very powerful statement in regard to suffering.  A statement that immediately as I finished reading, inspired my need to write about it.  Her main idea for this chapter is that often times we can discover our passions and the things that we would most like to see healed in the world around us from our own suffering.

What men meant for evil, God meant for good, for the saving of many lives.  Fires are lit in our lives and they can burn to shine light or cause destruction; we get to decide which purpose they will serve.

I am compelled before moving on to first touch on that beginning sentence.  I thought about only quoting the latter part, but seeing as how my blog subtitle is one simple Christian’s view, I could not leave out what is so important within the root of this study. God.  I do not know where you are with regard to God or good and evil.  I only know where I am at in my own personal walk with Christ within God’s story (a concept from this study that has been a resounding gong and beautiful analogy).  Suffering is one of those topics that often leads others to doubt an omniscient God could possibly be good, so I encourage those that struggle with that belief to reference  Mathew 7:7 in the New Testament if you cannot get past the first sentence.  I, personally, write from a belief and a faith that God is truly good; that any evil in this world comes from one that God is sovereign over, and He can use what evil meant to destroy (John 10:10) to bring about an ultimate good (John 16:33).  I say can, because ultimately He gives the choice to us, something that I believe many of us tend to forget when looking at the chaos in the world and our own part in it.  Suffering will be an inevitable truth as long as we are here on Earth, just as it is a truth that a fire can save the life of a camper lost in the bitter cold or cause an entire family to lose everything inside what once represented safety and security.

And so, I am led to my initial inspiration for writing from the author’s closing statement on chapter three.

Fires are lit in our lives and they can burn to shine light or cause destruction; we get to decide which purpose they will serve.

There was always something about fire that intrigued me.  Perhaps it is because fire is such a strong metaphor with its capacity for saving lives and destroying them in a very literal way.  Ironically, as I continue studying scriptures, fire is referenced often with a message of light and dark; good and evil.  So, when I read this statement, its truth profoundly stuck out to me.  As a thirty-two year old female who has taken several of the last years to draw outside the lines of society, attempting to follow where God is leading, I still find myself in a very “restless” state of mind (hence the reason I chose this particular study) when trying to understand how God can use me in such a crazy world.  I think the most defining factor of it all  is that we choose to decide.

A fire lit inside us will be used for something, and what that something is (or who is behind it) can destroy us, can destroy others, or can in fact bring a little piece of Heaven upon Earth.  That is rather powerful, don’t you think?  A power I think many of us fear because it often times leads to a tremendous social responsibility.  Without a faith in something other than ourselves, we can choose to extinguish a fire lit inside which could very well have been a life-saving light for someone else.  I know where the fires have been lit in my life, and I’m slowly discovering where God wants me to best shine that light.  It is a work in progress as it will continue to be every day that I breathe. Maybe you are still discovering yours; if so, let me be the first to say, it will not always be easy, quite the opposite really, but keep working to discover it anyway.  The daily work is the hardest part, but it is never the beginning or the middle of the race that is the most enjoyable, right?  Its always the feeling at the end.  Any amount of my suffering has been but a shadow among the joy I’ve experienced in the last several years looking back as I set out walking with The Lord to fan the flames inside me.  I struggle every day.  It does not mean that we won’t accidentally toss out fire that hurts others along the way as we try to figure it out, especially as we grow to understand how our sufferings may have (or still are) playing a part in those fires.  But I hope I can encourage someone when I say that we do have a very good God, who wants to use that spark inside you, wherever it came from, to shine light and use its warmth to save, not to destroy.

How often have we seen a fire, or a passion within yourself (or someone else), when put with ultimate good, light up a piece of the dark in the world?  Does it matter if that light touches only one or a thousand?  I think all it takes is one fire to light another and keep growing. It is in me.  It is in you.

I’m going to leave with a song that I like to sing as prayer sometimes by a band named “Unspoken.”  I hope you’ll enjoy and listen to the words: A fire lit