If you’re anything like me you’ve cherished the opportunity to be in the company of those people who by means of their very presence compel refinement. You’ve no doubt encountered such people, that is, those who carry about them an inspiriting atmosphere which acts as a refiner’s fire as you draw near unto them.
The strange thing about such people is that they can be some of the most uncomfortable people to be around. They challenge your assumptions, test your limits, bring pressure on your weaknesses and love you unconditionally while constantly urging you to be a better person. Rather than fluff pillows around you, they let the pressure build on that which is no longer fitting in your expression and they realize that they cannot do the work that you need to do for yourself.
When faced with the refiner’s fire you have two basic options: 1) give thanks for it and move swiftly to the center of the flame by releasing that which no longer belongs or 2) react against it, put up shields to deflect its purifying heat, then run and hide. When you walk boldly into the flame the temporary discomfort is replaced by a deep sense of peace that only comes when you do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. When you take cover from the refiner’s fire, the temporary relief from the discomfort is soon replaced by the sisters of mediocrity: agitation, emptiness and numbness.
In my experience the greater part of men choose the latter strategy, preferring a life of fleeting comfort to a life of ongoing refinement and lasting fulfillment. It is a sad spectacle to watch someone trade a moment of relief for a lifetime of misery, but it happens with disturbing regularity. I’ve watched friends, family, employees and even people I respected as leaders give in to this temptation.
The saddest cases are those in which the person knew better, knew the stakes and still elected to throw away the opportunity to refine. You never know who will choose to accept the call, who will luxuriate in the purifying heat of the fire and who will reject it. Those who respond will surprise you as much as those who do not.
There will, as there have been throughout most of recorded history, be those who not only shield their hearts from the fire but who then seek to snuff the flame or eradicate its source. Such people are not to be feared, but pitied and forgiven, for as it was once said “they know not what they do.”
As you begin to fan this flame in your own being by virtue of your acceptance of the call to refinement, you will have the privilege, honor and responsibility of influencing the world around you in ways that you may have always wished for but never really thought would be possible. This is an invisible influence with quite visible, tangible effects. It is the central means by which you replenish the earth and help others to their fulfillment.
Gregory Hake 
I feel very fortunate to have had many people in my life who have had that flame. It’s my greatest desire that as I have made choices to welcome the pressure and the refiner’s fire, that I can offer that same opportunity for others.
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Your blog often presents the refiners fire. Your subjects make me choose. Thank you and congratulations on such a worthy achievement.
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Yes, I agree your blog does present the opportunity to give thanks for the refiners fire and to move to that center part of the flame releasing what no longer belongs. Here is the experience of tranquility. As this is known it becomes apparent the fulfilling responsibility we have for our worlds.
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A clear distinction in choices. That gnawing emptiness that sweeps over when an opportunity is missed to refine is really a scream from our reality to rethink our course. It is simple, if we are not refining we are corrupting. Nothing stands still. I know each life can mean something but to be revealed it takes consistent concern to meet those golden opportunities to refine. This habit forms every area of our existence. There is usually a “too late” with this choice. Excellent subject for 1000!!!
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Usually there are characteristic points where a person will sell out for some comfort. Often enough it takes very little to trigger such a sell-off! It takes something to recognize such points and to be deliberate in walking through them without giving in to the compulsion to artificially negate the pressure. Oddly, though, it ptobably doesn’t take as much as one would assume!
We are built to use pressure to good effect, and we are not mysteriously doomed to fail. Walking through pressure points can be like waking up – becoming aware of a different world with different possibilities and parameters. I expect the world could use a few awakened ones!
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In reading these daily posts, you make it known to the reader that there are options in life, options on what to do you with your life besides just what lies on the surface like your career, your family and your hobbies. These are all important things without question, but they are not the end but the means to a greater end.
Before I came into a more conscious awareness of this greater end, the matter of purposed living, all I had to provide some guidance was my education and just a prevailing sense of discomfort about what the heck to do. This generally appears around your teenage years. An approaching pitfall then comes when you start making your own money, because you have to choose how to spend it and my goodness, how many comfortable luxuries there are out there, most of which really don’t even cost that much which means that most people can afford them! This is a defining moment, where what you do here sets your direction for what follows. The world sells comfort, sells luxury, sells entertainment – all kinds of things which have to be viewed through a lens of life purpose if one is to be happy and fulfilled, at peace. I can’t tell you how much I hear of people’s problems that relate to this central theme in my role of a professional counselor.
In this light, the refiner’s fire is where we all belong. We cannot forget the miracles that have to happen to just get us here. That’s all I can think about when seeing a newborn baby, really. If it indeed takes a miracle to be alive like this, then shouldn’t there be a darn good reason for it? A better reason than to simply spend valuable resources on comforts? I mean, you can still be entertained while you are part of the entertainment if entertainment is your thing. You are an active participant in the miracle of life, not the passive distant observer who needs to constantly nurse on the experiences of others, kind of like the fashionable vampires and zombies we see in today’s books and movies!
If you agree there is desolation and barrenness in the world today, if that has settled into your awareness, then it becomes a duty to somehow participate in its replenishment. Congrats on the millenia!
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