For the last few days, a team of workers has been clearing the forest above our home of dead trees and debris. When a forest fire ignites and advances, it’s the dead wood that creates an overly destructive fire threatening nearby homes. The workers are stacking the debris in piles making them ready for a future controlled burn. 

Some of you have gone through a tumultuous season of life. It was during that time when the Lord was cutting and stacking those things that do not serve His original purpose for your life. You have been prepared for something new.

During the pandemic, churches were cleared of a great deal of dead wood in our structure and function. So have the lives of all of us who thought our past would remain intact and be present as we journey into the future. The Lord used this time of cutting to clear away much of what we had become comfortable with but had limited our growth. 

A season of burning in the Church is about to take place. All the noise and disturbance that led us to this moment will begin to make sense once the Lord ignites what was dead to make way for something new. 

Later today, I will hike through the forest where the piles of dead wood and debris are now stacked. I will have both a sense of safety about our future and an expectancy that something new is about to be released.