RENEWED

 Look carefully: this is a forest coming back from a devastating fire several years earlier. Some trees survived, their trunks blackened. Toothpick-like ghosts of dead trees and emerging new trees and shrubs fill in the landscape. This area is prone to fire and it is also a major east-west highway through Washington's Cascade Mountains. I remember traveling it one year as a fire burned itself out. A state vehicle with a blinking red light on its roof led a limited numbers of cars at a time through the still-smoking pass. But there was no smoke on our most recent trip, just the marvel of how the land regenerates while still leaving reminders of the old fire.

Life also has times when we pass through a “fire zone.” Speaking of his wayward homeland, Isaiah prophesied: “When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze, for I am the Lord, your God” (Isaiah 43:2b-3a). For the Israelites, the “flames” would be the searing sorrow of being yanked away from their homeland as captives of Babylon. But the whole section of this prophecy emphasizes God's enduring love through their difficulty. Renewal, new life, would come.

I've lived long enough to watch many people I cared about (and prayed for) make bad decisions. Big chunks of their lives were burned up as they walked away from God. One day I answered the phone to the sobs of a young woman who'd attended a Bible study in our home. She'd yielded to her boyfriend's demands for sexual intimacy before marriage. Now, she regretted it and felt God would never forgive her. As I rushed over to her apartment and hugged her, trying to comfort her with God's counsel, I recalled this verse for those who truly repent of their sin: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). She cut off the relationship and sought a fresh start with Christ. Later, God did bring into her life a committed Christian man, and they married.

Trials will come in life. That's a given. But so is God's renewing presence:

...for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:6-7)

In central Washington, where I live, we've had our share of runaway, destructive fires. But every spring, forest management teams plan “controlled burns” to reduce the fuel for future fires. In many ways, that's a picture of what happens when people get “burned” by their bad decisions, then confess and turn away from them. Such times of sorrow are God's reminder: Don't go there. Don't make those choices. The pain isn't worth it. Renewal, though it may take time, will come. Stay the course—God's course.

Never say never

Part of a continuing series inspired by sights of Kauai.
Feral chickens run all over the Hawaiian island of Kauai, in part because their natural enemy, the mongoose, was never introduced onto this island.  Go in a tourist shop, and you’ll find chicken-themed souvenirs right next to the shell beads and Hawaiian shirts.

For me, the birds prompted remembrance of that sad, cool night a panicked man tried to keep near his spiritual leader. The man had once vowed he’d never deny a connection to his leader.  But his leader, wise beyond this world, predicted, “Before the rooster crows twice, you’ll deny me three times.”

 

The unthinkable happened:  the wise, gentle leader was arrested by thugs.  The man crept behind them as they took his leader to an official’s house.  The night was chilly, and someone had lit a fire. Cold, probably trembling with fear, he slunk near the fire to warm up

A servant girl—not a well-armed thug—noticed him and said, “This man was with the arrested man.” The man shot back, “I don’t know him.”

A little later, someone echoed her hunch, “You also are one of this man’s followers.”

“I am not!” the man insisted.

 

About an hour later, someone else voiced suspicions: “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.” The man declared, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just then, a rooster began crowing, and the man remembered his boast. His arrested leader, a captive of ruffians and perturbed religious officials, turned and looked at the man. It was more than the follower could bear.

The man, named Peter, left the scene, heaving with bitter tears. Peter had failed his Savior, broken his boast, revealed the flaws of his character. Like any of us.Peter learned his bitter lesson well. Two letters he wrote after he rose to become a leader in the new sect of “The Way” (later called Christianity), are full of practical ways to follow Christ. I wonder if Peter was thinking of his rooster-announced failures when he wrote:

In this [living hope in Jesus Christ, vv.3-5] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:6-7) 

Will we ever face the test of the rooster’s crow? When opportunity comes to share about our faith, will we shrink back? Or use innocent idioms? 

At the Oregon junior college shootings in October, the random victims were asked to state their religion.  Those who said “Christian” got a killing bullet.  I may never face that extreme test. But every day brings tests to act and speak as someone not ashamed of Jesus Christ.

Burned up!

It’s gone—all gone. Just ashes and charred ruins are left of a family home just a few blocks away. It burst into flames one night while the family was away. By the time neighbors woke and discovered the burning house, it was too late to save. A couple, two small children, and a brother were suddenly homeless.

Seeing the blackened shell a few days after the fire, I had two thoughts. One was, “How utterly sad.” Buying that home had probably stretched this young couple to their financial limits. In the newspaper article telling of their loss, the wife said they were grateful they still had one another. But the children were already missing their baby blankets.

 My other thought was of the “fire” that will test everything I’ve done in life. The apostle Paul wrote of how Christians build on the foundation of faith in Christ. They can build with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw--referring to choices that involve our work, relationships and service. In the end, when believers face God, “it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work” (1 Corinthians 3:13).

If we believe in Christ, and are counting on His atoning work on the cross for our salvation, we won’t lose that.  But if our lives were filled with selfish or frivolous pursuits, they’ll flame up like dry straw. On the other hand, if our love for Christ has led us into spiritually fruitful lives, there will be heavenly rewards (v. 14).

The Bible says the “fires” of suffering we experience on earth have a purpose in shaping us for eternity. “These have come,” Peter wrote, “so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:6-7). Suffering can either make us bitter, or better-equipped for God’s purposes.

I’m sorry for the young couple who lost so much of their worldly possessions. It’s on my walking route, so I will see it often. For now, it’s a sobering reminder to consider what building materials I am laying on the foundation of faith in Christ. Excessive pleasure? Personal indulgence? Isolation from the world’s needs? Or service to my needy world grounded in love for Christ? To borrow that oft-quoted poem by missionary C.T. Studd:  “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.”