The Path

Pray Without Ceasing.

Especially, When walking through the fire.

I lived in Hawaii for almost two years. It is a beautiful place, if you know where to go. If you ever go there, stay away from the tourist trap of Waikiki (or what a dear loved once called Why-yucky). To Experience Hawaii, don’t book in the hotels. Rent a room or a house from someone living there or go camping. There are magical places you can go in Hawaii if you learn to stay away from the drawing attractions designed to put a dent in your wallet. There are places you can swim with turtles, rent jeeps to go through crazy mountain trails or sky dive. Bottom line if you are going to go Hawaii, be adventurous. The more you move out of your comfort zone and do something daring, the more Hawaii becomes alive to you. One thing I regret however, is not seeing someone walk across the fire pit. I know your probably thinking WHAT?!!! But, it’s true. I got to see fire swallowing, fire dancing and fire twirling. But I never got to see some one walk across a fire pit. Heard it’s pretty intense to see and even more intense if you get to do it.

How I understand fire walking usually goes from what I have been told, it’s late in the evening. The professional fire walker comes out and introduces themselves and gives a very positive message of some sort and even tells some jokes to entertain the onlookers. Well, then in a quiet moment the professional walks across the flames with a steady ease. After wards many cheer the fire walkers’ performance and then, the fire walker encourages others to do it. Now, most relationship counseling retreats use this method to build up self-esteem, confidence in partnership and to illustrate the wisdoms of building a good foundation within a relationship that has met trials. It was also explained to me, the quote unquote “secrets” to fire walking.

The reason why most fire walking sessions happen at night are for a few good reasons. The first reason, is that under the vail of night, the fire looks intimidating. The fires embers glow and capture the audience. Once the audience’s attention is engulfed with this path of fire, the professional uses the fire path to explain the values of a relationship. Like most people with good public speaking skills know, the professional uses the fire to keep his audience engaged into what they’re saying. Then the moment comes when the professional is walk on the fire path and talking to the audience as they do it. What the audience hasn’t paid attention to however, is that, the whole time the professional was talking, most of the fire turned to ash on the top layer. This allows the professional to walk across the flames in a calm manner, so that the audience will be both awe struck with professionals’ fire walking “talent” and actively listen to what they’re trying to teach the couples. The second secret to this fire walking “talent”, is the professional is placing their mind elsewhere, so that his mind is not focused on the walk itself. Then the professional, has the couples walk across the flames together with the professional and the crowd cheering them on. Once the couple is completed, the couple feels closer and more united. The symbolism of walking through the fire together, is a very intense spiritual experience for struggling relationships. I bring this fire walking activity up, because in many ways, that’s what we’re doing when we are praying without ceasing. Especially in the midst of a trial. You see God makes us a very intimate promise when we go through trials. In Isiah chapter 43 verse 2:

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”

So, why do we stop praying the moment a trial comes? Or give up praying for others when we don’t see a change? It’s direct communication with the creator of the whole universe and yet, we go silent. We get tongue tied as we get consumed by our troubles. Some of us get too depressed or angry we don’t pray. Some of us get so worked up with anxiety that we forget to pray. We allow our emotions to dictate what we do. And I will not lie to you, I have struggled with this myself on many occasions. But, as I draw closer to God and he closer to me, praying without ceasing has become the most calming and most peaceful thing to my soul. Why? Because I am bowing my heart to the King of Peace.