There was a guest speaker at church this week - a fellow who comes regularly. I really appreciate this man's sermons, and he brings a rare passion to his preaching. It's a good combination, and perhaps what I most admire is that he has chosen to labor in a harder ministry. He works in a city and in a place that would not be easy by any stretch of the imagination. He works with people that most have forgotten - or perhaps have chosen to overlook. In many ways he has chosen the hard path, and in that way, his passion seems genuine. Indeed, from all outside appearances, it does seem that God's hand is on his life in a special way. Anyway, as I was listening to the message this Sunday, it brought to mind a quote...
“Set yourself on fire with passion and the world will come to watch you burn." - Unknown
This quote (or variations of it) has traditionally been attributed to John Wesley. But, from what I have read, this seems to be more legend than fact. I was somewhat comforted to learn that Wesley apparently never said these words.
As for the quote itself, there is something quite beautiful about it on the one hand. And, then perhaps something bothersome and ignoble on the other. As Christians, we should strive to "set ourselves on fire" as it were. To burn with a righteous passion for the things that God loves. To fan the flames of zeal for His name. Oh, that we had a heart with this kind of unrelenting zeal. And, if that were our temperature, I suppose that as a by-product many around would marvel with astonishment and even curiosity as to how one could be so alive and passionate for God's glory.
And, on the other hand, I suppose the quote - if read another way - in some way rings hollow. The end of such a godly zeal would rightly be a clearer view of the glory of God. God's name would be elevated. And, yet the end attributed here is that the world would come to watch. Maybe I am being too exacting on this point. After all, I don't even know the context of this quote. And, I suppose a watching world could also be a glorious thing as well - that the tantalizing passion for God's glory seen in another, could whet the appetite of the seeker.
At any rate, I have always really liked this quote. And, I still do. But, it probably deserves a second look.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." [Psalm 23:4]
“If life is a river, then pursuing Christ requires swimming upstream. When we stop swimming, or actively following Him, we automatically begin to be swept downstream."
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God
“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?" [Psalm 8:3-4]
“Sometimes hesed is translated “steadfast love.” It combines commitment with sacrifice. Hesed is one-way love. Love without an exit strategy. When you love with hesed love, you bind yourself to the object of your love, no matter what the response is. So if the object of your love snaps at you, you still love that person. If you’ve had an argument with your spouse in which you were slighted or not heard, you refuse to retaliate through silence or withholding your affection. Your response to the other person is entirely independent of how that person has treated you. Hesed is a stubborn love. Love like this eliminates moodiness, the touchiness that is increasingly common in people today."
- Paul Miller, A Loving Life: In a World of Broken Relationships
We are one month post Christmas and still fresh in my mind is the mystery of the incarnation. Indeed our God loves to bring rescue in counterintuitive ways.
It seems to me that a good litmus test for how we are growing in Christ likeness can be gauged by our “interruptibility” (if that were a word). Are we able to be interrupted and be ok with it? Can our schedules and agendas flex and yield to the agendas of others? Can we set aside our own priorities to hear or attend to the priorities of others? Can we allow the priorities of others to win out?
There are boundaries to being interrupted, of course. There are times when we simply cannot move the line – when we must push through to see something important to completion. And, for certain, there are seasons of business in life where there is not much space for others to burrow in.
Yet, on the whole, it has been my experience that the people who have most reflected and most deeply tasted of the grace of God were people that (to a healthy degree) were ok with being interrupted. And, more than that, they met those interruptions not with gritted teeth or furrowed brow, but with gracefulness and kindness. They made space in their lives for others and saw helping them as a priority. And, maybe…just maybe they were people that saw these seeming annoying interruptions as Divine opportunities placed in their pathway by God Himself.
