Rekindled

by Rocky Fleming

Day One – Refresh the Fire

“For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”  (2nd Timothy 1:6 NASB)

My grandparents lived in Clara, Mississippi, which was a small village in Mississippi. It was in a creek several yards away from their house that I learned to swim in the cold-water swim hole and swing off a cable into the creek to learn how to dive. It was from my grandfather that I learned to whittle, and from “Mu’s” wood cookstove (Old Bessie) that I ate some of the best fried chicken, biscuits, vegetables and apple pie ever cooked by my loving grandmother. Their house was a true country house. I described it in my book, Journey to the Inner Chamber, for it was the house I could visualize when I wrote the story.  

When I visited my family there in winters, I was too young to start a fire in one of the three fireplaces, but I was old enough to bring in the firewood to keep the fires fed. I had to watch the fires and get the firewood or else the fires would burn out. There was a time that I let the fire go really low and then piled on several big pieces of oak logs and to my surprise, it snuffed the fire out. This is when I got my first lesson in maintaining a fire. I was told that I should not try to put big logs on the fire when it’s going out. Instead, I needed to rekindle the fire with fat pine (kindling) to get the fire hot again, and then add the big logs. Then the fresh fire could handle the heavy wood without going out.

As I think of my experience with this dynamic in keeping a fire alive, I connect it with the exhortation the Apostle Paul was giving to Timothy.  Paul told Timothy to kindle afresh or rekindle the gift that had been entrusted to him.  The spiritual gift was Timothy’s God-given ability to make disciples and organize the leadership of the Ephesian church that possibly included the other churches in the province of Asia.  Timothy had a great ability to do this.  It was a gift.  He had once had a fire in his life that began when the older Paul laid hands on him and commissioned him for leadership.  It was an ordination of the man into his ministry by his old mentor.  This put a lot of responsibility on Timothy.  But because the emotional fire and his connection with Christ were fresh and burning brightly at that time, he could handle the load.  

But what happened when Paul left town?  What happened when Timothy got under a long-term haul of a lot of responsibility and he forgot to take care of his own soul?  His emotional fire began to fade.  What happened to the people under his care when the fire within Timothy started to go out?  How did he respond?  Like many leaders, did he try to keep a mask on to hide his pain, his weariness, and his spiritual neglect to keep the Church propped up and encouraged while the fire was dying inside him?  Or, did Timothy do like a lot of us who try to pile more work on to feel better about ourselves and hope that his condition would simply go away?  Was he doing like I did by adding big logs to a dying fire and hope it would catch a flame again?  Was this what was happening? I know men, and I know what it’s like to be in a “burned out” condition.  Paul knew men, and he knew what Timothy needed, for he spotted a burned-out condition in the man.  Timothy needed to take a break away from the load of responsibility he was under and to rekindle the fire in his life that was down to embers.  The condition Timothy was in is real, and the remedy for this condition is real as well.  

But like all remedies, those who are in need of it must take it.  Timothy needed to go back to his first love for Christ and get back to the basics of just being alone with Him and away from the busyness of spiritual activity to rediscover that which he had lost.  Note that I said to get away from the “busyness of spiritual activity,” but not away from Jesus.  It needed to be simply the two of them spending time together. There are many types of burnout, from physical, mental, occupational, relational and spiritual.  My concern is to address the issue of spiritual burnout that some of you guys are going through.  I want to do my best to give you an uplift of your spirit by rekindling your intimate connection with the Comforter of your souls.  

In order to do this, I would like to “unload” from you some of those heavy weights you are feeling right now, and give you some new kindling on that dimly burning fire within you.  Let me know if by the end of this series you have been refreshed, for my prayer for God’s inspiration in writing this series is to give you burned out heroes of the faith some encouragement.  

More tomorrow.