Have you ever tried to start a fire where the wind is blowing hard? It is very difficult to get the fire going, right? One starts with a little spark that has to be protected from the wind. That little spark could be blown away. But we can also add fuel to make it a raging fire.
Since He is our Creator, God is the beginning of everything. He is very especially the beginning of our soul. He is like the spark of the fire in our heart. But what are we to do with that spark?
King David tells us: “find your delight in the Lord, who will give you your heart’s desire” (Psalm 37:4). What is that desire? It is the desire of making the Lord our delight. Meaning that, as long as we make God the object of our desires, as long as we want to please Him above all things by having nothing more in our hearts than love for Him, He will make our hearts plentiful.
Think about the pure surrender of a young seminarian or novice who want to leave behind the world as they know it in order to offer a life of sacrifice for Him. Where does that come from? Certainly, not from their selfish humanity, it comes from God’s spark. They have answered by saying “You are my delight Lord, please fulfill my desire”. God, in response, pours gallons of fuel into that little spark making their hearts a raging fire of love for the Father.
Same with lay people. We remain in the world but are not of the world. We have our surrenders and sacrifices as well. And we must have the same response: “You are my delight Lord, please fulfill my desire”.
What kind of fire are we going to present the Creator when He calls us to His presence? Is it going to be a weak little flame? Let’s pray that at the end, when our legs lose all strength in His overwhelming presence, the fire in our hearts would be a fierce scorching blaze that the winds of the world did not extinguish.
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