The C3 Leaders devotion is a peer weekly reflection from business leaders related to their journey with Christ. Each weekly devotion will be written by a different author from among the C3 Leaders community.

As we go through this next year together, we pray that these words and reflections will encourage you in your relationship with Jesus Christ.

I love building fires in the fireplace or at the fire pit at our cabin. Building a good fire is much like building a good movement. Fires start small. They need fuel, air, and time. Fires bring warmth, light, and comfort. Fires need to be tended and stoked to grow and to achieve its purpose.

The thrill and the warmth of a blazing fire reminds me of my childhood deep in the Cascade Mountains, thirteen miles from the nearest little town. My parent’s thirty-three room hunting lodge had a large open river rock fireplace ensconced by two gigantic elk heads with towering antlers hanging majestically above. It was an inviting fireplace with charming warmth; a great place to talk, play, read, or dream. It was warm, it gave light, and it was home.

As kids, we loved to stand in front of the roaring fire until our clothes were searing hot, and then lay down on the floor to feel the intense heat pulsating through our clothes and into our skin. I still love the heat of a roaring fire. It reminds me that small movements of the Holy Spirit can become roaring fires.

Sometimes when I am building a fire from scratch I don’t get it right and the fire quickly burns out or smolders for a while. Building a good fire requires a preparation, enough draft, and wood balanced appropriately.

Movements birthed by God’s Spirit are much like building a fire. God inspires people to move on an impulse of the Holy Spirit with some kindling and a little paper which often are birthed by an idea that is endorsed by others. Smaller pieces of wood are added often in the form of an encouraging conversation, a friend getting involved, or someone offering financial investment. When the fire gains additional heat, bigger logs are strategically placed to add fuel to the fire. The fire needs to be stoked once in a while but it is now generating its own heat, no longer fueled by human hands.

Sometimes we play with the fire, over-stoking, or adding too much fuel as we seek to make the fire grow too fast. We often grow impatient as we want an instant blaze, rather than waiting patiently for God’s steady presence and work.

As you follow God’s movements in your life can you identify the kindling, the paper, the smaller logs, the draft of air, the stoking, and the big logs? How are you cooperating with God to build the fire he has sparked in your life? His fire is warm, gives light, and is home.

Stoking the Fire,

Jon Sharpe