Burning the Chaff. Decluttering the Heart

    The sky is full of smoke during the day and at night you can see the crimson flames licking up the weeds and left-over chaff from the wheat. The Didinga are burning their fields. The wheat harvest is done and the beginning of rainy season is upon us! Everyone is in anticipation as they wait for the first rains to fall and for the plowing and planting to begin!

                 

Though the fields look scorched and marred now, because they are burned, within the next 

month of rain the hills will turn green and the soil will be rich with upcoming plants. Burning releases nutrients into the ground, which help revitalize the soil. It’s also a method of brush, tick and weed control. It never ceases to amaze me how fast the flush of green replaces the chard and burnt!

The other night the field next to my hut was being burned. I watched as excited children and teenagers grabbed handfuls of weeds aflame and helped light the field. It was the closest to the 4th of July I've seen in two years! I walked through the burning field and reflected about the things in my life that I can hold on to so tightly. I thought about the necessity of those things being burned away so that new things can grow. I want to be fruitful and full of life. 

Maybe it's unforgiveness, resentment, disappointment, hurt, anger, fear or distrust. Maybe it's something that started out good, but like the wheat, has served it's purpose, gleaned and must now be let go of. Perhaps it's time to let God burn some of your fields too.

So often I'm afraid of being burnt, afraid to take the hand of sorrow or suffering, afraid I'll be made empty and desolate and alone...

Yet, if wheat is not ground it is not useful for tasty bread. 

Unless a sead dies it remains alone. 

And more than anything we can trust God who does the refining because He does so only to brings life afterward. 

"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,

The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine."