Lump of Coal

A few weeks ago I stumbled onto some blogs of 20-something Christians and was blown away by their passion and "on-fire"ness.. I then made the mistake of comparing their lives with my own... gasp...

I discussed this a bit with a friend, and we agreed that part of it is due to the idealism and excitement of youth, but I also realized that in the past few years I have allowed my social circles to shrink so that I'm not in close life-contact with many people... my friend suggested I "go get some new on-fire over-40-year-old friends!"... well, how do you do that when you're not 7? and what does an on-fire 40+ person look like?

I realized I have defined "on-fire" almost exclusively as a missionary, or at least missions-minded... this can lead to shrinking circles of friends as they leave "home" and "go". So about a week after wrestling with this question I went to a coffee for the women in my church and lo and behold, I saw all kinds of "on-fire" women - married women with kids, grandmothers, single women - who lived "normal" lives in the US - and some even had grey hair!

So this 38-year-old lump of coal has realized she has to find some people to be "real" with - people who are "on-fire" and can help keep my own fire for God going... hmm... wonder which aisle of the grocery store I go down for that one?