burning-candle--candles--objects--fire_350492

Striving to Become on Fire

burning-candle--candles--objects--fire_350492

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”                        (from the poem Summer Day by Mary Oliver)

It’s a question asked countless times; a question that relentlessly demands an answer with an ever present whisper. A question I haven’t answered to my satisfaction . . . yet.

Sure, I’ve got a few of the big pieces figured out, I am a wife, mother and lover of God, but the details on how I am to engage in the everyday mundane events that give life and meaning to these relationships . . . those details are a bit fuzzy.  It’s becoming clear that the infused wisdom that I always presumed adults received hasn’t come yet.  Maybe it will arrive next year?  In the meantime, I guess I have to keep working to figure out the particulars of my vocation.

Thus far I have lived a life that borders on mediocre.  I haven’t managed to screw things up too badly, but neither have I excelled strongly.  I may not particularly struggle with vice, but I surely am not a paragon of virtue.

Now that I am a mother, I feel the time slipping by at an ever hurrying pace.  I put my baby down for a nap, and, when I go to pick her up a few short hours later, her growth is almost perceptible.  Tempus fugit.  My time with them is so short and serves as a reminder of the brevity of my life as a whole.  It rather reminds me of taking an exam and realizing that the testing period is slipping by and there is so much left to be done.

In the words of my good friend, (and patron saint) Catherine of Sienna:

“Be who you are meant to be and you will set the world on fire.”

There lies the trouble; I am not yet who I am meant to be.  The potential is there, though, and the means are within my grasp.  I am not yet on fire, I am only half kindled.  A work in the making.  The match has been struck, but the kindling is not yet aflame.  That is my quest then: to go from this lukewarm state to become a blazing fire. And what stands between me and my goal?  Many acts of the will.  Many acts of love.

In a sense, this is the most dangerous question a person can ask: how am I to light the world on fire? Time will tell how I answer the question.  I hope you will join me on this journey as I work to answer it in my own life.

It’s time to live on fire!

 “I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!” Luke 12:49

Come Holy Spirit, renew the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of Thy love.

I would love it if you could take a moment to stop by and leave a comment.  Things are very “under construction” at the moment,  so please bear with me as I try to build this “virtual home.”  Feel free drop by and introduce yourself.  I promise that I won’t mind if you prop your feet up on the coffee table.

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5 thoughts on “Striving to Become on Fire

  1. Pingback: A Life on Fire | Half Kindled

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