Fire.

This quote from St. Augustine of Hippo is found in Book VIII, Chapter IV of The Confessions.  I first read this in one of my undergrad religion classes and have read it many times since then, though it is not an easy read.  I guess what draws me to it is his willingness and deep desire to continue searching until he finally finds rest in God. Augustine yearned to know the truth of faith, longed to have a conversion like other men he knew, but he struggled mightily in resigning his more worldly desires to it.  He does eventually take the leap, and it in doing so becomes one of the most influential figures in both Catholicism and the Protestant Reformation.  

There is something so deep about the movement of God in us, when we allow ourselves to trust in it.  I think Prophet Jeremiah touches on that when after facing persecution he turns to God and rather boldly lets God know that what he has been asked to do is really pretty awful and utterly difficult.  It's a bit of a double-edged sword for Jeremiah:

 If I say, “I will not mention him,    or speak any more in his name,”then within me there is something like a burning fire    shut up in my bones;I am weary with holding it in,    and I cannot.  (Jeremiah 20:9)

Can you think of the last time when you felt like you had fire in your bones about something?  When you just knew you had something important to do, or to say? Maybe you've crossed paths with someone and instantly knew that you were going to befriend them because your souls just connected? 

Whatever you want to call it:  passion, vocation, that still small voice...the movement of the Divine in us is real and can be overwhelmingly beautiful, it can also feel very elusive when yearned after. For Augustine this connection really haunted him until he finally was able to say yes to God.  For Jeremiah, saying yes led him to proclaim God's truth to deaf ears, and yet he could not step away from that fire in his bones.  

In many ways this strange time in our lives has forced us into a different dialogue with our Creator.  Everything coming to a halt created space for searching and listening to the movement of God, which can be so easily overlooked when we are busy rushing from one thing to the next, checking things off the never-ending to-do lists of our lives.  

Again today I heard someone speak of fire in their bones, a call to ministry of sorts - an excitement about trying something new, and a voice quivering with fearful exuberance at the movement of God.  This has been a joyful thread running through my life as a pastor these days.  There is nothing more exciting than when someone shares about the fire in their bones, when passion meets purpose and it all comes together in some new and amazing way.  

So tell me friends, what sets your bones ablaze these days?  What is the voice of God in your heart?  Are you making space for God to whisper the truth of your belovedness in your ear?  


Be our fire, O God.  Let us love.  Let us run.  
Pastor Devon