Burning Bush
I generally wake up in one of three moods. The first one is depressed: having experienced a disturbing dream I awaken with a sense of foreboding or feeling lousy physically. The second one is the opposite: somehow I spent the night tuned in to “radio heaven” with a praise song blaring in my spirit. Even as I sleepily stagger to the coffee pot, I have the dim knowledge that this day is starting off well, even joyful. The third kind is more common. This is the feeling that everything is dull, colorless, passionless. And while coffee may stimulate, it doesn’t brighten anything. I desire a fire in my spirit but the night has snuffed out the sparks in my soul.
As a human being, I am told I am created to be a vessel (a holder or container) and can become a temple (a houser of something) which can be either sacred or profane. In Christ I have been given the power to choose, and of course, as my “want to” was changed at the cross I now “want” to choose life. I can cooperate with the ways and truth and life of God or the demonic, I can connect with the sacred or profane. I also recognize if I pursue body/soul stuff, that’s what I get back. But when I pursue God I get His life in me.
By the way, if you dig around in the Psalms you will read where David is talking and exhorting his soul and body: that is David’s spirit questioning and exhorting the rest of him (“why so downcast O my soul…”). So like David, I can choose to encourage myself (all that is within me) to get it together and go after God.
This past Sunday I woke up passionless: not depressed but not hearing the songs of heaven either. So I chose (willed) to wake up my body, mind/emotions, and my spirit to God. Listening to music on headphones, I rotated three songs all with the title “You are Good” for a half hour. I CHOSE to engage every part of my three part nature to both thank and give praise to the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and on this day directed most of the honor to the Father. Somehow God came into his temple (me) as I drew near to Him. All during this connecting time I was speaking to Him specifically about the things that He has done that touch my heart (salvation, protection, family, direction) – thanksgiving. And pointed out qualities about Him that also touched my heart (good, kind, gracious, merciful, strong, pure) – praise. These remembrances and declarations were the matches that lit the fire. I walked out the door burning.
The same thing can happen every day. We may gather to worship at church and experience a burn for thirty minutes and then sit in the afterglow for another hour or two longer during fellowship. But if we know how to light the fire and how to stoke it, it is available to us 24/7/365. We can be a continual burning bush, a vessel / temple prepared for the Holy Spirit, to receive and then provide light and love to all around us continually without being consumed.