A Fire

Last week the team from Fairfax Community Church was helping me at the school. We had a bunch of trash that had accumulated from emptying the boxes from the new container. Here in Zambia there is no trash pick-up. You just dig a big hole and then keep dumping your trash/"rubbish" into it and then burning it. I gave Jared some matches and he took a bunch of rubbish to the pit and set it on fire.

It was really my fault that I didn't take into consideration that it was very windy and the area around the pit wasn't completely cleared of dry grass. He lit the fire and was there, making sure it stayed in the pit. Later he went back to put more into the pit and there were still burning embers. As is common, a couple of the kids were rooting around seeing what "treasures" I was throwing away. After Jared left the kids must have stirred up the fire and the wind picked it up and it started burning the land around it.

Here in our part of Africa, fires are so common from now until the rains come (Nov) that no one really pays much attention. The netball team that was practicing just kept on playing even though there was fire close to them. Other kids kept swinging and playing, ignoring what looked like a dangerous fire. The sound is quite frightening as the dry grass burns. Of course, smoke was rising up as the fire quickly spread with the wind fanning the flames.

On the other hand, the team from VA began to almost panic. They were trying to keep the fire from spreading and it really startled them. Coming from the states, I was very aware of the difference in response to the fire.

There must be a lesson in this. I think of the Holy Spirit's fire. Are we like the children who ignore it as it burns around us, or maybe just take it for granted? Are we like Americans who see the fire as a threat to what we know and where we are? I have been reading about the terrible fires in Colorado and I am not making light of the destructive quality of our earthly fires. But the fire of the Holy Spirit comes to purify, cleanse, and fill us with Power for service. Lets not take it for granted, ignore it, or try to put it out. That Holy Spirit fire we need in these days!