A small light brought to life by the swift motion of a match, crackling logs of warmth on a crisp night, all consuming power sweeping through a forest…fire is gentle yet powerful, a place of safety and of danger depending on what it is consuming.

One evening I looked into the flames of the gas fireplace, mesmerized by the way they danced and changed color, licking at logs that never burn up. It felt nice to focus on something and not let the anxious thoughts and worries that had consumed my mind that week take over again. I watched the flames repeat over and over – blue to orange to yellow, dancing then dying then reappearing.

I remembered a verse I had read once: “For our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:29).

Could he not consume these worries? Did he not say, “Cast your burden upon me and I will sustain you” (Psalm 55:22). Like a piece of paper being thrown into a fire, which is quickly consumed by the flames and transformed into ash that floats away into the night sky, is this not what our “Consuming Fire” can do to these fears and worries?

I began to pray in some way. Not with any formal word or method, but just began to name and tell this Consuming Fire the emotions I was experiencing and the worries and fears that weighed down upon my mind. Repeating them, even, into the flames.

Consuming anxiety began to be consumed by fire.

I imagined each of these worries being placed into the flame, curling up at the edges, collapsing into themselves and gently floating away as embers turned into ash.

I sat there until my face felt like it glowed with heat. I tangibly gave God these burdens and for the first time that week I felt that they were gone, at least for the moment, and that was a relief.

If you know anything about simple science, matter changes form but never disappears. What you put in a fire will burn up and seem to disappear, but it actually just changed form into other elements. Worries and burdens can be the same. Sometimes the situation and ‘to do’s’ may still be there. They will not disappear entirely. There are some things we cannot change and other things we cannot avoid, and they will come into our minds and rest upon our conscience day after day.

For those of us who have no one more powerful than ourselves to give them to, these burdens truly do remain on our shoulders. We must come through for ourselves but inevitably buckle under what we were never made to handle. But for those of us who, indeed, do have One more powerful than ourselves – our Consuming Fire; gentle yet powerful; a place of safety yet danger – he takes the great “logs” upon our shoulders that burden our heart, repeat in our mind and dampen our emotions and he burns them into embers turned to ash, gently floating away and releasing us from their weight.

May you come face to face with this Consuming Fire.