When you are a male, there is an instinct that attracts you to fire. With danger involved and possible destruction, man is drawn to fire like a teenage girl to a shoe sale. However, every once and a while, man underestimates the power of fire.
A couple years ago, I was hanging out with several friends at my parents’ house. When it started to get dark, someone eagerly suggested we use the fire pit in the back yard, and I jumped at the opportunity. I grabbed a box of matches and hurried out the door. My parents had a gas fire pit, and the instructions were meant to be fool-proof: gas+match=fire. The problem was that the wind kept extinguishing my match before I could light the pit. After several attempts, I was beginning to get worried. I had turned the gas on 5 minutes ago, but had yet to successfully drop a lit mach onto the rocks below. Beads of sweat formed on my brow as I continued to light match after match, only to have them blow out before connecting with the ever-increasing amount of gas. I was about to give up and tell my friends to roast marshmallows over a candle when I got a very foolish idea. I got on my knees and leaned directly over the pit so that the next match would immediately ignite the gas. Closing my eyes and praying for invincibility, I lit my last match. A small mushroom cloud rose from the flaming pit! When I regained consciousness, I was happy to be alive (with or without eyebrows) and happily called the others to come enjoy our blazing new fire.
It is easy to feel small in this big world. I often feel like my life is insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I am not overly talented or exceedingly smart, and I have the report cards to prove it! I want to make a difference in this world, but how could someone so ordinary ever have an impact? There is a story in the Bible that involves a great fire, and that is the story of Moses. God came to him in the form of a burning bush, and gave him a HUGE task: To stand up to the most powerful man in the world! I bet Moses felt pretty small! But when he starts to object, God says, “I will certainly be with you” (Exodus 3:12).
God is the key ingredient. On his own, Moses really was pretty hopeless! But he wasn’t going to do it alone. This is a good reminder for me whenever I feel insignificant; it’s not about what I can do, it’s about what God wants to do through me. I am just a small match, but when God provides the fuel, it explodes into something pretty incredible! And you know what? The source of fuel will keep the fire burning long after the match has gone out.
Mike Blackaby is 25 years old and is the college and young adult pastor at First Baptist Church in Jonesboro, GA. Mike loves to play music, loves to snowboard, play hockey, and cheers for the Colorado Avalanche. He is terrified of spiders, but loves reading fantasy novels, watching movies, taking road trips, building camp fires, and will do any roller coaster if someone goes with him. You can contact him via Facebook.