Earth

Perhaps you are like me and find that Paul’s fire leaves you feeling very lukewarm.  Don’t feel guilt about this.  Name it.  Bring it.  Let him do the “Bear Grylls firestarter thing” where he spins the little stick in your heart and you will begin to smell the smoke in no time.  Then the spark.  The smoke.  And… finally, flame.

You see, the second element gains its importance from its relationship to the first.  You can only know Fire for Him if you know of what you are made.  Earth.  The Hebrew creation story tells us that He formed us from the earth and breathed into us Life.  Without His breath we are… dirt.

 We need our Source to flourish or else we will wither.

Intellectuals use another word for that, we are a “contingent” being.  It just means that we are not ok on our own.  We are not independent.  We need our Source to flourish or else we will wither.  Didn’t Jesus say something like that in John 15?  Hmmm…..

This is why our hearts are such idol factories.  We know we need but we have been running since Eden from The Source so we are trying to find alternative sources that can resource our contingency while we stay in control.  But we eventually lose that control and become ruled by those alternatives.

At some point the folly of this lands with all of it force upon our heads and we know that we either must turn to the True or die.  The 12 steps of AA says it this way, “we came to see that we were powerless over _____________ and that our lives had become unmanageable.”  This is the moment when the element of earth enters our journey.  This is when we know who we are.  And this moment is where we can finally see Him for who He is and what He is offering us for what it is.  This is the recipe for Fire.  Brokenness.  Need.  It is why he started His Sermon with these words, “How truly fortunate are those who are beggars in Spirit.  The Kingdom belongs to them.” (Mt. 5:3)