Geri led us in this contemplative experience as a New Life staff team last week. On the “planning” retreats we take two to three times a year, we generally take a half a day focused on our internal lives with God before launching into our external work for Him. Enjoy this personally or as a team.
Fire – by Judy Brown
What makes a fire burn
is space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can douse the flames
almost as surely
as a pail of water would.
So building fires
requires attention
to the spaces in between
as much as the wood.
When we are able to build
open spaces
in the same way
we have learned to pile on the logs,
then we can come to see how
it is fuel, and absence of the fuel
together, that makes fire possible.
We only need lay a log
lightly from time to time.
A fire
grows
simply because the space is there,
with openings
in which the flame
that knows just how it wants to burn
can find its way.
Personal Reflection Questions
• When in your ministry or life in the past year have you piled on too many logs?
• When has too much of a good thing been not a good thing?
• What does it look like for you to create sufficient spaces in this season of your life?
• What fire(s) might emerge when you allow enough space between the logs?
Group Sharing in 3’s and Prayer
Share out of your personal time how God came to you?
What do you need from God in light of how He’s coming to you? (discipline, non-perfectionism, faith, strength, prudence…)
Have the person on your right pray that for you.
