However the long cold months in Ipswich can take a bit of a toll on the fireplace. Usually we just keep stocking the fireplace, adding wood and letting the hot coals light it up. We keep it hot and stoked during the night, and allow it to burn down to nothing during the day. In the evenings we just add more kindling and a little paper and get it going again. However you do start to accumulate ash in the bottom of the heater.
Before winter begins, and sometimes half way through, you need to clean out that ash. Ash starts off as good healthy wood, it burns hot and the flames grow, burning bright. This breaks the wood down into hot coals, these glow hot as well, igniting more wood that you put in there, which in turn burns and becomes hot coals to repeat the process again and again. It seems like a healthy cycle of warm goodness, however; as it cools a little the coals become ash, and once it is ash it’s good for nothing. Eventually that ash fills the fireplace, and even though you can still have a fire it is slightly smothered by the amount of ash in there with it.
So it’s good to get in there and clean out the ash. That off coloured grey powder just seems so dead and lifeless as you sweep it out. It’s good for nothing, not even the garden, you just toss it away.
Then with the bricks swept and clear, you place in some newspaper, kindling and wood, light it up and get that clean warm glow heating up your house burning bright and looking fantastic.
I think sometimes our Christian lives can be like that too. We have stuff that burns within us; passions, desires, goals and dreams. Full of wonder and worship we partake in so much stuff that it makes our lives just like a hot wood fireplace, warming us and those around us.
But over time those things can start too cool, we can still have a fire in there, but it just doesn’t burn as cleanly. Theology, music, religion, service, work, relationships, expectations and just day to day life starts to turn to ash, filling us up. These things start off as good burning material, but can slowly turn into useless ash that stops us from burning as hot. We can still burn some of it in there, but it’s kind of choked by all the other stuff around it.
So at times we need to get in there, clean out the ash and sweep the place ready to place new wood. By cleaning out our lives, taking stock of everything, recommitting our core beliefs and getting back to a distinct focus on Jesus we can make our hearts ready to burn hot at bright again. New wood can then be added, but starting from a clean swept fire place that is clear from anything that could hinder the coals from burning hot.
I think I did a bit of a clean out over the last weekend. I went away on Counter Culture’s Focus Camp. We spent a lot of time in worship and prayer, just focusing our hearts on Jesus.
A teaching DVD message from Louie Giglio really started my sweeping clean out. He spoke of God’s plan, really grabbing the idea that everything is done for God’s glory and not for ours. How often do we go to church with expectations of what we will get out of it? Everything that happens, be it bad or good, loud or quiet is for the glory of God. It’s all about him – God created the world and us for his glory, that may sound egotistical, but it’s not. God is God, he knows it, so he can’t be anything but God. God is all powerful, all knowing, and almighty – if God knows that, and he is truth, then he must act like it – not out of ego, but out of majesty.
I think that really refocused my relationship with Him. I don’t think I’d had anything too bad going on in my life, I think I was just feeling choked by the amount of stuff going on in it. So sweeping everything out, and then cleaning it with the knowledge everything I do is for God’s glory not mine will allow me to start putting more stuff back in that will allow me to burn clean and bright once again.
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