After the Fire Goes OutSample

CHANGE INSTEAD OF CHALLENGE 

How much do we believe we can change? Do we resist that change, or are we tempted to stagnate because it is more comfortable? Most of us resist change on some level—it is natural. Few of us find the courage to move past that uncomfortable feeling into God’s comforting arms. 

Fire is an element that can not only destroy but also burn away all the bad that existed. Fire can consume an object until it becomes nothing more than the flame. The fire that Moses faced burned away every sin, every mistake, every pain that he carried for 40 years from Egypt. The fire erased Moses, the man, and, instead, made Moses the messenger. 

This last year or so has been our own burning bush, revealing little bits and pieces of ourselves that we didn’t want to see. We have been privy to political corruption, racial injustice, worldwide disease, economic disparity, and all manner of horrors that would shake the average man. But God used that fire to get our attention, to humble us, and to turn us fully to Him. With the world’s fire, we would be consumed; but with God’s fire, we will be changed. 

Our natural inclination is to resist as much as possible. We don’t want change if it is going to be scary or hard or tough. We want change when it is going to be easy and clean. Change is never easy, and it is never clean. In nature, there is something called “natural succession,” which entails the rebirth of a forest after it has burned down. Even in nature, God shows us that what burns down must grow back—that what you’ve lost will not compare to the glory of what you’ll gain. 

Stop challenging the fire by resisting it; that will get you nowhere. Instead, embrace what God is doing, and let Him take you through it, hand-in-hand, until you come out like gold on the other side. Trust God that there is another side; and when the fire is gone, that is the blessing of His lesson. 

When the burning bush finally went out, Moses embraced his mission with vigor and zeal, clear in his mandate from God. The fire you are in will go out; press on with the change instead of fighting against it.