Catch Fire!

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were driving through a small town in Tennessee when he saw a large tent that had been assembled by the side of the road.

"They having a revival?" he asked.

"Nope - fireworks", I replied, having seen the signs posted along the road.

Then the thought struck me that revival is a lot like fireworks.  I don't mean that it should be loud and flashy and short-lived.  Far from it!  There are some more positive parallels between the two.

A firework is made up of several kinds of materials.  Gunpowder propels it into the air and causes the explosion.  Different kinds of metals and chemicals such as aluminum, copper, iron, magnesium, and phosphorus create all the sparkle and the color that we see in the night sky. Those things are tightly packed into a cylinder with a fuse.  All the potential for the light, the sparkles, the color, and the sound is in that missile, but until the fuse is lit there is only silence and darkness. 

We're a lot like that.  We are packed full of the potential that God has placed within us.  We have our gifts and talents.  We have dreams of what kind of people we want to be.  If we're wise, we've packed our lives with biblical knowledge and training, but unless that spark of the Holy Spirit has been applied to our lives, we often stay dormant, complacent, and silent. A firework isn't fulfilling its potential until that fuse is lit and we aren't fulfilling ours when we get tired, jaded, cynical, or spiritually dry.

We all have seasons of our lives when this can happen.  Sometimes it's because of a struggle with circumstances, but other times we can get that way even in the middle of good times in our lives.  The important thing is to recognize when it comes and to deal with it.  You don't have to attend a revival meeting - you just need to reconnect with the one who revives.

Just like fireworks, each of us has a different expression in the kingdom when we are living up to our spiritual potential.  You might be a sparkler while your neighbor is a Roman candle, so make sure that you don't expect their journey and ministry to be just like yours. Real fireworks have a dazzling array of colors and pattern. We are all uniquely designed for a purpose.  Make it your mission to catch fire!