Among the many ways of building heat for cooking and also maintaining it for household warmth, the Slow Combustion stove (known in the UK as a “range”) is one of the most reliable. Its coals may build heat slowly, but its secret is the simplicity of controlled draft, which allows the coals to build to a required heat and thereafter maintain an ideal temperature for cooking and washing.
The campfire is a good way of heating water for coffee quickly, and the hands of those standing around it. But an open fire is an ineffective means of cooking and warming, simply because its heat is uncontrolled, so it dissipates quickly.
The prophet Jeremiah was well aware of controlled heat because he spoke of God’s message as “a burning fire shut up in my bones” (Jeremiah 20:9). The Hebrew word means “to enclose, to restrain, to maintain”. Prophets know how hard it can be to ‘control the draft’ — restrain the fiery words that burn within them — until the right time arrives for them to be spoken. I’m more of a visionary, but seeing things “beyond beyond” also has restrictions as regards Time (if not Place).
A Prime Minister in Australia who was removed in the early 1970s urged his followers to “maintain the rage”. But rage is less controllable and fast burning, and fury can be all-consuming. In Psalm 39, David writes of how he had felt: “I said, I will guard my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will muzzle my mouth while in the presence of the wicked. I was mute with silence. I held my peace even from good, and my sorrow was stirred up. My heart was hot within me. While I was musing, the fire burned.
“Then I spoke with my tongue…” David released his inner feelings to the LORD, not his enemies, and of his indignation at the conduct of mankind, even himself. He spoke to God rather than “rage, rage, at the dying of the light” as one poet put it. David’s conclusion: “Surely, every man at his best is but a vapour” — a phantom, a shadow [of what he could and should be] “My hope is in You.” I was mute, I did not open my mouth.”.
In muzzling his mouth, David allowed his heart to muse on the futility of living for possessions rather than for the LORD. In so doing, he closed the regulating draft to prevent his feelings from dissipating in the form of wasted heat.
It is easier to stoke a smouldering fire than to rekindle a burnt-out one. Likewise, “staying on fire for God” can be better than a “burning out” through lack of fuel. Better to maintain the heat through a “slow burn”. Not of resentment but of releasing your fiery feelings to God; of “musing while the fire burns and builds up heat”.
Apollos was “fervent in spirit”, but Aquila and Priscilla redirected his zeal, his heat, to more efficient ways and to better effect. (Acts 18:24-28; Romans 10:2 & 12:11. Fervent heat needs to be contained until it can be used effectively.
David’s slow burn is due to his painful awareness of Life’s Mortality (Psalm 39:4), Life’s Illusions (verse 6a), Life’s Futility (verse 6b), and Life’s Transience (verse 12)
What makes YOU burn? Reading that King Frederick of Prussia had his servants leave a baby alone in a room to be clothed and fed but not loved to discover how long it would live made me burn with indignation! (The child died quickly.) How anyone could deprive a newborn baby of love set my heart on fire! David’s secret pain stirred his soul and heated his heart. But he restrained himself from letting anyone but his God know how he felt about the injustices he observed around him.
Seven Kinds of Silence:
1. Stoical Silence. Putting up with wrongs silently.
2. Political Silence. Usually to evade likely consequences.
3. Foolish Silence. Not speaking out when you know you should.
4. Sullen Silence. Sulky silence due to deep feelings of inability.
5. Forced Silence. Due to threats by someone to yourself or loved ones.
6. Despairing Silence. Giving up because of trying time and again to no result.
7. Prudent Silence. Better to say nothing than to speak and make things worse.
Don’t allow your inner “fire” to just “go up in smoke” — keep your fire burning by adjusting the draft to suit the situation. Your mouth can let the fire out, but your tongue can adjust how much or how little you should speak in a given situation or circumstance. It is said that “Silence is Golden”, but a word spoken at the right time — “in its cycle” — is priceless!