Spiritual Pyromania?

For roughly the first half of the first decade of this century I worked for a ministry that tried to encourage people and churches to learn more about, and become more involved in missions. I went from church to church, trying to light a fire under missions leaders and congregations. But a while ago I can across a comment – “If you really want to motivate people, don’t light a fire under them; fan the flame within them.”

That’s what Spiritual Pyromania is all about. There is clearly a flame burning within hearts and souls of many Christians I meet – a flame for joy, for God’s Glory, for delight in God, for missions and the unreached peoples of the world. I don’t need to light fires in them. But what I do want to do it to fan that flame, make it grow, pour a little gas on it. I want to make that flame explode!

My dear 80-year-old dad who always likes things to be peaceful told me that he didn’t like that imagery of pouring gasoline on a fire – that it sounded too destructive. I told him it was meant to be, because we – spiritual pyromaniacs – are all about destroying a few things. We want to destroy mediocrity. Divided hearts. Anything that holds us back from total, unfettered commitment to the cause of Christ in today’s world. We want to destroy the shackles of society and culture that tell us to not get so lathered. We want to destroy the cold water we throw on the flames of God-enthralled youth who have the audacity to believe that they really can change the world. We want to destroy expectations that say, “You need to settle down, get a good job, and make lots of money so that you can live comfortably, retire early, and spend your best and brightest years living on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico and collecting shells on the seacoast.” We want to destroy anything and everything that would cause the people of God to waste their lives.

[Twitter: spiritualpyro]