First Glimpses of the Fire Pit

So we come to it. We want to get a fire going. It will warm us, protect us, help us to see. It will look pretty, be mesmerizing, sound hypnotic, and be generally amazing. Oh, and it will be dangerous. Very dangerous. A fire is not something to treat flippantly. 

So we come to it. And it is a mess. The fire pit is a mess. Over time, while we were not using it, paying attention, taking care of it, it developed into a mess. It has garbage, sticks, logs, ash, charred pieces of things long since burned. 

It is not as simple as taking a match or lighter to this pile of random garbage - at least not if you want a good, useful fire. 

So we begin the process of preparing the pit so that we can build a good, healthy fire. We take the garbage, and sticks and logs and charred remains of old fire, and we remove everything from the pit so it is clear and clean. 

Once the pit is clear, we can begin to build the fire. But that is for a different post.

Like the fire, what we believe will warm us, will protect us, help us see our lives more clearly. It will look pretty, be mesmerizing, sound hypnotic, and be generally amazing. Oh, and it will be dangerous. Very dangerous. A belief is not something to treat flippantly.

So we come to it. Our system of beliefs is frequently ignored, except to throw more things into the pile. In the time since we last paid attention, it has turned into a mess. Pieces of different ideas that we burned through, new thoughts that never got processed, clever ideas that don’t fit with anything else, practices of various faiths and worship practices whose foundations we have either never known or have long forgotten. 

It is not as simple as just picking up a new set of beliefs just because we think they might be correct. We have to clear the old stuff out before we can begin to build a healthy, good, belief system. 

This is difficult, because there are a lot of heavy things on this pile. And some of it can go back in, even though a lot of it will just be tossed out. So let’s get to it. Next time, we will look at the process we will use to clear out our figurative fire pit, and then after that we will take a few of the big things out. 

After we have cleared it out sufficiently, we will start building the fire up and get it ready to light. 

And then we will move on from there. 

See you next week.