Denise Fawcett Facey

Rekindling the Fire

Undertaking a new, heartfelt endeavor is exciting. The passion, sense of adventure, and inherent belief that infinite, wonderful possibilities await are truly exhilarating. That’s how I felt when I first became a teacher.

Young and hopeful, I worked in a tough community, teaching teenagers whose lives were so relentlessly rough that they generally took the difficulties in stride, as simply the way life was, oblivious to the prospect that life could be easier and less fraught with danger.

Working with these teens, in fact, I learned just as much as I taught. While history was my area of knowledge, they imparted the wisdom of the streets, encompassing a tenacity that refused to yield to life’s adversities, but instead viewed each hardship as a challenge, somewhat of a game to be won. I admired their endurance and their zest for life that accompanied it. I still do.

But, I gradually found that when their burdens became a bit more than they could carry alone, more and more students confided their troubles in me. Seeking to minister to their numerous needs, I eventually began to lose the joy and sense of exhilaration I once had in teaching. The fire of my passion began to dwindle to a few dying embers. Indeed, in time, I felt burnt out by the profession.

Dismayed and dejected, I wondered how I could be at such a low point after only five years — seriously contemplating walking away from education — despite the sure knowledge that teaching was my ministry. So, when that school year ended, I spent the summer praying about the situation. And the Lord revealed a simple fact that remains fresh in my mind today.

You see, ministering to every student who presented a problem to me was my choice, not God’s will. Yes, He had called me to teach, and in so doing to minister to the needs of students. But God never said that I should minister to every student who stood before me. What a revelation this was to me.

With this new insight, I began to spend every summer prayerfully seeking wisdom and discernment for the upcoming school year, to know which students the Lord would have me minister to, and which ones I should simply pray for. Those summertime prayers made all the difference.

The fire once again burned brightly within me, and with its return came my fervor for teaching and my eagerness for ministering to teens. In fact, the Lord revealed a couple of significant truths. First, it is the Lord who fuels the fire, “for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). Secondly, when the flame that burned under my ministry had begun to die out, I was the one who had doused the flame by stepping beyond His will. And, finally, the Lord had not only shown me how to rekindle the fire, but also how to keep it burning: just remain in His will.

A simple lesson, this experience has been as life-altering as it has been life-enhancing for me. I’ve learned to put my very best effort into doing whatever the Lord calls me to do — and only what He calls me to do it — and then know that that’s enough. Having acquired this lesson the hard way, I now know the importance of ministering only where the Lord sends me. And I’ve found so much contentment and genuine fulfillment in doing this, even as He has moved me on to new ministries.

Isn’t it wonderful how the Lord shows us the error of our ways and then guides us in changing our paths? What a lovely way to put into action the Scripture that says, “The Lord disciplines those He loves” (Hebrews 12:6).

Whatever the Lord gives you to do is your ministry. And if you’ve ever found yourself laboring heartily, yet fruitlessly, your enthusiasm waning under the weight of your efforts, take heart from my experience. The Lord sees your efforts and loves your enthusiasm. But, perhaps your struggle would cease by allowing Him to re-direct your path and rekindle your fire.

Then, you can resume your work “with all your heart, as working for the Lord not for men” (Colossians 3:23), working as the Holy Spirit directs, rather than as you see fit. In so doing, you’ll keep the fire burning.

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you” (2 Timothy 1:6)