“𝘼 𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙤𝙣 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚, 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨𝙣’𝙩 𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚” – 𝙁𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙝 𝙁𝙞𝙧𝙚 – 𝙈𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙠 𝙘𝙞𝙩𝙮
When I was four years old, I was at my mamaw’s house for a family lunch. It was 1987 and The Karate Kid was out in theaters and it was one of my favorite movies. All of us cousins were at my mamaw’s house, playing in the back room, and I felt like it was my job to show all of them how to properly do the crane kick. Now if you remember the crane kick, this is the one that Daniel LaRusso used to beat Johnny in the All Valley Tournament.
While doing the crane kick I lost balance and fell backwards into a pot of chicken grease. My mamaw had used the grease to make fried chicken and back then, you wouldn’t throw your grease away. You would keep it so that you could use it again later. The grease was still steaming hot when I fell backwards, sitting myself down into it.
I remember excruciating pain. I remember it feeling like my skin was on fire. I was screaming, kicking, and crying out for help. I would spend the next 21 days in the hospital with second and third-degree burns all over my back, legs and even on my feet where I couldn’t walk. I would go into surgery so that the doctors could peel my dead, burnt skin away from my body and after spending most of my hospital stay in a wheelchair, had to be forced to stretch out the burnt skin around my feet so that I could walk.
About two months ago I was reading the book “On Fire”, by John O’Leary, where he talks about how at nine years old, he was playing with matches and gasoline and the fumes from the gasoline caught fire engulfing his entire body in flames. His clothes and his skin began melting. His clothes were mostly burn off, his jacket melting into a skin as he ran screaming and crying into his house, eventually passing out on his way to the hospital.
When I fell into that pot of grease, my skin starting to burn, I didn’t have any concern about what I looked like or what I sounded like. I wasn’t concerned if my cousins thought I wasn’t tough enough, or whether I was a baby for crying and screaming out in sheer pain. I didn’t worry if my tears were too much or if they thought I looked funny. I imagine John O’Leary probably felt the same. I highly doubt he was concerned if his screams and tears were being judged or if he was being made fun of because most of his clothes were burnt off and he was naked.
When you’re consumed by something, whether it’s fire or in my case, chicken grease….
Your only concern is the moment.
I truly believe that God gives us the dreams and the desires of our hearts. Psalm37:4 says that we are to “Delight yourself also in the Lord and that he shall give us the desires of our heart.”
Now I can look at this two different ways. First, I can believe that God will give us what we want most in our heart. I do believe that to a point, but there’s some more context needed there, but I do ultimately believe that God will give us the desires of our heart.
This is how I believe that most people actually read it.
Another way to look at it, which God showed me this morning, is that when you trust and commit yourself to the Lord, he will “give you”, like being handed something, tells you, or even writes what your heart's desire/dreams will be and then, if you continue on into Psalm 37:5, he will help you bring those desires and dreams to life.
So what does this have to do with being burnt?
You see, when you’re consumed by the love of God, and you’ve allowed him to write his desires for your life on your heart, then you will live a life where you are free from any concern of judgment, opinions or laughter from others. You won’t care what your life looks like, or what it sounds like. Your only concern will be living, committing everything that you do to God, then allowing him to help you bring those desires and dreams, that he wrote on your heart, to life.
It’s time for us to stop worrying about what our life looks like from an outward appearance or perception. It’s time for us to stop allowing the negative or limiting beliefs of others to define whether or not we are capable, or worthy, of living and achieving the desires and dreams that God specifically gave to us.
Instead, let’s live our lives being consumed by the knowledge that God has a plan for your life. A plan for hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). Let God‘s love and his promises consume you like a fire, finally allowing you to live in true relationship and freedom with Jesus.
I believe I was called for a particular purpose. I believe that God’s desires for my life are for me to be an encourager of people and to be the carrier of the message that love is the foundational key that Leadership needs to be built on. That loving and caring for others, Influencing positive change in their life and helping them understand their true value is the desire and message that God gave to me.
I will allow God to consume me, and my life, and I’m not going to care what it sounds like or what it looks like.
I will live my life like A Man On Fire.
So what are you going to be consumed by?