Beware of Burnup and Burnout

There was a house fire on my street two nights ago.  All things were peaceful until my wife and I were startled by the alarms of fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars as they raced past our house down the road.  Like the rest of our neighbors we went out into the cold night and walked down the road to see what was happening.  Flames were shooting out of the roof of our neighbor's home.  We worried about whether everyone got out safely - we heard that they did.  Praise God!

The next morning my granddaughters asked if I would go down by the burned up house before driving them to school.  We stopped and sadly gazed upon the destruction.  One of my granddaughters expressed concern for the children of the home.  I assured her that everyone got out safely and they were staying with relatives.

The fire had started in the roof around the fireplace chimney and completely destroyed the second storey of the home, making it a total right off.  Fireplaces and wood stoves can indeed be dangerous unless special care is given to cleaning the chimney.

There is something eerie about a house after it has experienced a major fire.  As we sat there gazing upon it I could sense the lifeless emptiness of a home that once exhilarated love, life, and laughter.  The old saying says that "It takes a family to make a real home" rings true.

Within every soul exists a flame of passion for life.  Like fireplaces and wood stoves, special care needs to be given to the flame of passion.  If it is not properly stoked with the initiative of vision and purpose, it will soon burn down and eventually burn out.  But it can also burn up.  Every human soul has its limits to the amount of stress and activity it can handle.  If proper attention is not given to these tensions in the soul then things can get out of control and become a raging fire that will consume and destroy.

The same lesson applies to the life of the church as well.  Within every fellowship there is a limit to the energy it has to expend.  Once that energy level is exceeded then things begin to fall apart and people loose their passion.  Pastors and leaders would be wise to keep abreast of this and manage the expectations of the church.  Too often we put our focus on the results we are aiming for and miss the results of the journey along the way.

These are some thoughts that have been on my mind as I look ahead into the coming year.  May God bless you in all of your endeavours for 2012.  Blessings.

-Leo