CONTROLLED BURN

by Barbara Chadwick

 

This week as we turned into the gates of our subdivision there was a sign “Controlled Burn in Progress” 

Since we are one half mile from the Roosevelt National Forest we were concerned especially as the smoke began to fill the air. But we do understand the need for a controlled burn.

The forest gets tangled up with dead trees, bushes and vines and if the forest rangers don’t carefully get rid of this undergrowth then we have an unhealthy forest. When lightning strikes a dead tree we can get an uncontrollable forest fire. Colorado had twelve forest fires in 2012 and they were made worse by this very factor.

Our lives develop bad habits and undergrowth just as the forest does. If we don’t pay attention to the junk that grows and develops our actions can become ugly and uncontrollable. We can destroy people in our path.  Occasionally we need to have a controlled burn in progress!  

Zechariah 13:9 says, I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them.

In Isaiah  48:10-11 we read:  See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

Then in Psalm 66:10-12  - For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.

“There is no question that trouble and trials are both fiery and painful and there’s no question that they also challenge our relationship with God. If our faith is true and pure that relationship is improved and dross comes to the surface where I can be removed.” Bryan Kimsey,  Ministerial Alliance, April , 2008  (Find his excellent sermon based on the hymn “How Firm A Foundation” at www.fbcdesmoines.org)

When we go through the fire and we call on the name of the Lord our God He will answer.
He will guide us through it and in the process refine us. We will become healthy Christians, not like the unhealthy forests that burn uncontrollably and destroy people in their path.