I remember once standing on the deck of a steel navy ship at sea. At that moment the engine room was a distant memory, because I felt the sun on my face and the salty air filled my nostrils. The ship was traveling in excess of 25 mph making the breeze that day very robust. I felt like Leonardo DiCaprio in the film The Titanic with his arms out stretched. I was flying, and anything that troubled me before--was gone. I took in the sights and sounds of the sea. Flying fish darted across the water like skipped pebbles. Dolphins swam ahead of the ship, weaving back and forth as if playing a friendly game of tag. Sea birds soared on the air currents above the ship. Truly, I felt like the King of world. I smiled and closed my eyes to let the wind pat my face, until a blast from the ship's fog horn jarred me back into reality. Anytime I feel overwhelmed, I think of that moment at sea, the sights, the sounds and the breeze.
There's something about the gentle flow of a breeze that feels like a long, soft exhale. A sensation, in the company of nice weather, where you want to sit down, put your feet up, and hum while holding a glass of iced tea. Ancient man felt comfortable in the breeze when he first walked in its coolness with God. Not only did God's exhale fill the lungs of man and bring him life, but it also was a symbol of care-freedom when He was present.
The challenges of daily living can often present questions laced with a sense of frustration. Is God with me? Does God see or hear what I'm going through? I'm a good person, I pay taxes, I love my family, I'm hard working and I'm honest. So, why am I going through so many bad things? Although they're valid, these questions are a trap. They're a trap because some questions of why have answers that vary widely across belief systems, and without proper answers, they can create a platform for bitterness and anger. Bitterness and anger form from the internalized energy of events outwardly observed and/or felt. A lost home and/or job, financially difficulty, a divorce, a fatality of a close loved one, family in-fighting, etc., are all fires that burn externally, but become internalized because their effects carry meaning in our lives. Some people call the internalized energy of outward pain, emotional baggage, but I call it heart-fire, because over time it can lead to congestive heart failure. The operative word of congestive heart failure is congestive, which is when the heart is so congested with filth that it can no longer move blood. Like any fire, heart-fire, in order to cause heart failure, must be fed so that it increases with magnitude. The more you internalize stressful events, the bigger the fire. The first step in preventing the build up of heart-fire lies in keeping external pain from gaining a foothold internally. So, understanding the building blocks of fire is essential to knowing how to defeat it.
There's something about the gentle flow of a breeze that feels like a long, soft exhale. A sensation, in the company of nice weather, where you want to sit down, put your feet up, and hum while holding a glass of iced tea. Ancient man felt comfortable in the breeze when he first walked in its coolness with God. Not only did God's exhale fill the lungs of man and bring him life, but it also was a symbol of care-freedom when He was present. 
The challenges of daily living can often present questions laced with a sense of frustration. Is God with me? Does God see or hear what I'm going through? I'm a good person, I pay taxes, I love my family, I'm hard working and I'm honest. So, why am I going through so many bad things? Although they're valid, these questions are a trap. They're a trap because some questions of why have answers that vary widely across belief systems, and without proper answers, they can create a platform for bitterness and anger. Bitterness and anger form from the internalized energy of events outwardly observed and/or felt. A lost home and/or job, financially difficulty, a divorce, a fatality of a close loved one, family in-fighting, etc., are all fires that burn externally, but become internalized because their effects carry meaning in our lives. Some people call the internalized energy of outward pain, emotional baggage, but I call it heart-fire, because over time it can lead to congestive heart failure. The operative word of congestive heart failure is congestive, which is when the heart is so congested with filth that it can no longer move blood. Like any fire, heart-fire, in order to cause heart failure, must be fed so that it increases with magnitude. The more you internalize stressful events, the bigger the fire. The first step in preventing the build up of heart-fire lies in keeping external pain from gaining a foothold internally. So, understanding the building blocks of fire is essential to knowing how to defeat it.
Fire, is the sublime amalgamation of three elements that, when seamlessly unified, form a fire triangle. While the triangle remains unbroken, fire will sustain itself, and if left unconfined, will move to increase its size by lengthening each rung of the triangle. More fuel means more heat, more heat means more oxygen -- the fire grows. Heart-fire functions in much the same manner. Life events that bring more pain can potentially increases the fire's size. For some people, there is a self-sustaining quality to heart-fire because they form self-destructive behaviors that feed it. It often has an I Love Lucy feel, like nothing is going right, and the self-perpetuated lie that things will never get better. The method used to extinguish nature's fire is similar to the method needed to extinguish heart-fire. It involves dismantling the fire triangle by separating its elements. 
An element to the story that is often over looked is the point when the temperature of the furnace was raised to 7 times hotter. Furnaces for making pots were typically heated to ~2000 degrees Fahrenheit. The high temperature allows the minerals of the clay to melt together and form a hard and durable substance. If the furnace is made too hot, then the melting process actually destroys the pot. Now, if the temperature is raised 7 times, as it was by Nebuchadnezzar, then the temperature was ~14000 degrees Fahrenheit. Not even the furnace would last at that temperature. Nebuchadnezzar not only desired to destroy the governors, but also the vessel of their destruction and any confidence in God.
As they were bound and carried to the instrument of their demise, the governors didn't feel the heat of the furnace, unlike their captures, who were consumed by the flames. Rather, when they fell into the furnace, the 3 governors initially found themselves at the feet of God, and free from the ropes that bound them. As they rose to their feet, each man said to himself, "Hey, I'm not burning!" It was true. In fact, as they stood in the presence of God, the men neither acted as fuel for the fire nor felt its heat, what they felt was a cooling breeze. God supernaturally separated the fire back into its individual elements. Before the 3 governors were bound, God was already present in the fire. Before the King was angry enough to increase the temperature of the furnace, God was in the flames. As the governors stood in the furnace, the elements couldn't stand united to do them harm while God was present. Even as Nebuchadnezzar raised the heat of the furnace by adding air and fuel, all he accomplished was providing ancient air conditioning.
Cheers and keep on running!
WOW, Dorrian!
ReplyDeleteYou really set the stage. I felt as if I was there on that ship with you! It is soooo true that keeping all that emotion bound up inside lacking forgiveness (because forgiveness can release the fire) that we end up poisoning ourselves through disease (dis-ease) slowly. Although we go through, the depth of the valley’s pain is minimized as we continue to walk with God.
Thanks for the reminder to step back and feel the breeze...it has the power to bring us clarity and allow time in refuge to regain some strength!
You have a gift of writing and making things pertinent to current times and struggles while maintaining a biblical perspective. Keep on writing ;-).
~Denise
I could hear the Christopher Cross song "Sailing when I read the first part of this.....and then Bobby McFarren's "Don't Worry, Be Happy"!! Love it! Keep moving forward!!!
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