“Set a fire down in my soul, that I can’t contain and I can’t control. I want more of you God. I want more of you God.”
Will Reagan and the United Pursuit’s Set a Fire is one of my new favorite worship songs. The simple chorus has become a constant prayer, but until last week, I didn’t know how powerful it was. Then God decided to teach me more about fires.
On Wednesday night, one of the missionaries at Michael’s Children’s Village (MCV) came running into our house and said he urgently needed the guys to help him. He told us to quickly put on pants and shoes so we could fight a fire that started down the road. We hurried there in the back of a truck with fire slapping tools and then bushwhacked in the dark until we got to a small fire someone started. It wasn’t very large so it was easy to put out, but the next morning it came back with full force.
When we arrived on the scene on Thursday, things were way more intense. Huge flames leapt from the side of the road and consumed the dry African grass. A few of the neighbors were already there, and one had to go to the hospital with burns on his hand. We desperately began stomping the flames, but they continued to spread. The powerful heat and acrid smoke made it nearly impossible to stand near the fire, and the wind kept spreading it through the woods.
We continued to stomp the flames with the MCV missionaries and other neighbors. At one point, my teammate, Jordan, and I were further in the woods fighting the source of the fire, but we had to evacuate once the wind picked up. As soon as we got back to the road safely, the wooded hill we had climbed up caught fire. One of the telephone poles caught on fire as well, and things began to get chaotic. With the help of adrenaline and prayer, we kept fighting. I found myself singing Set a Fire in my head each time I ran into the harsh smoke or stood next to the stifling flames.“There’s no place I’d rather be. No place I’d rather be. No place I’d rather be than here in your love, here in your love.”
As the song kept playing in my head, the fire expanded through the other side of the woods, right up to the edge of the MCV property fence. This is where things got even more intense. The fight turned into a group effort, with the women racing inside to fill buckets, pots, and bottles of water and the men running up to the fire to pour them out. Even the orphans were part of the effort, filling whatever they could with water to help.
As a group, we kept everything from getting out of control, and the local fire department eventually showed up on Africa time. We spent most of the day fighting the fire, which probably consumed about five acres overall.It’s funny because the night before, I asked God to stretch me the next day more than ever. Stretching has become a metaphor for me, as part of the continual challenge for God to bring it on in my life. I have flexibility problems and doctors have been telling me to stretch since I was in third grade. Sadly, I haven’t given much of an effort to stretch myself physically, but the example can be applied in a lot of deeper ways, including spiritually.
Like physical stretching, I’ve been trying to stretch myself more spiritually and have been asking God to help. Figuratively, I have been seated in a stretching position with the faith so God will push on my back at the right time to increase my flexibility. That’s definitely what he did last week.
This journey of being stretched is longer than just an 11-month mission trip: it will continue for the rest of my life. I still have a long way to go, but I’ve already leveled up through the challenges we’ve faced on the mission field. I am ready to live life with more abandon and be stretched to reach the potential God has for me.
With this mindset, I have a feeling he’s going to start pushing on my back harder now, and as he does, I will keep praying dangerous prayers like this:
“Set a fire down in my soul, that I can’t contain, and I can’t control. I want more of you God. I want more of you God.”
I now know what I am asking for, but with God’s protection I’m not scared one bit.
Do you want to pray dangerous prayers like Isaac did? Are you ready to ask God to show you more of himself?
