Fire

You’ve gathering around the little fire you’ve made for yourself from Holy Scripture. You’ve begun to feel its heat. It might not be much, but it’s something—and that something’s enough to keep you alive. What I tell you now is very important; don’t miss it, even though it will take you awhile to understand it. The heat isn’t coming from outside you, but from within. You are on fire. I wish I could show you what a torch you already are for God (Matthew 5.14-16). I can’t, you’ve got to discover that for yourself. The path you’re running isn’t outside you; it’s not beyond you, somewhere else. True, God is out there; God is above and beyond you. But the mystery Jesus made known is that the fullness of God—what he called “the kingdom of God”—is among us. What’s more, it’s “within you” (Luke 17.21). You’re not running toward a cathedral or a monastery. You don’t have to climb mountains and cross oceans. It’s not a heavenly city or life-after-death you seek. Nor do you need a teacher to show you the way (1 John 2.27). No, no, no. None of that. The fullness of God is within you (Ephesians 3.17-19).

That that’s hard to believe doesn’t make it untrue. It just means that we’re strangers to a fact hidden from us, a truth Jesus came to make known. But you’re waking up, and that’s proof you’re willing to let go of all that wants to keep you blind to the splendor of the Fire burning within you.

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