We are Christ-centered Friends who equip and encourage all people
to respond to God's love and transforming Spirit.
Peat Soil Fires & Forgiving
by Karen Little, First Words - March 9, 2008
2 Cor. 2:5-11There is a phenomenon that happens in places built on ancient lake beds. It is underground fires. In some places the fires are happening in coal fields. In my geographical area the fires happen in the peat soil. How this works is fascinating in a horrible way. Somehow a spark ignites the dirt. The spark could be from an unprotected exhaust system on a car, truck, or tractor. It can be from something as uncontrollable as a power saw hitting an unsuspected nail while building fence. When the soil catches fire it is almost impossible to put out. The fire goes underground and starts tunneling deep and wide following the richest veins of organic material. It can burn for months in the peat soil.
You might ask, “Why this lesson in underground fire?” It was the image that came to mind as our pastor spoke about what happens when we live with an unforgiving spirit. Being unforgiving is unhealthy in so many ways, many of which are unknown at first. The pain which we carefully foster inside begins to burn our souls. It tunnels out and down into places that are the most fertile in our lives. After a time these fertile places are destroyed. It is only as we look to those places in our lives which have always given joy, or love, or peace, or contentment and find them barren do we know how deep the fire of our bitterness has burned.
How then do we root these fires out? I think the method used to put a peat fire out has theological wisdom. There are three ways to put fire out—deprive it of air, deprive it of fuel, or deprive it of heat. It is impossible to deprive peat fires of air because they can get enough air from the soil around it to keep burning even when it is deep underground. It is impossible to deprive it of fuel since it is burning the soil itself. So the only way to put a peat fire out is to deprive
it of heat. And even this method is difficult because the fire will protect itself.
The experts say that there are two ways to lower the temperature: to saturate the fire with water. Not an easy task because peat soil is extremely porous. The only other way is to pour water on the fire then remove the top layer of ash that has formed a type of seal over the hot embers, pour more water on and again remove the top layer of ash. This process must be done over and over again until the fire is finally put out. My brother calls this method “placer mining fire control.”
Forgiving requires the same kind of tireless work. We also have a tendency to protect those places where we have been hurt and where we harbor bitterness. In our world there is plenty of opportunity to be hurt which only adds fuel to our fire so we can’t deprive our fire of fuel. Even when the fire has burned very deeply into our beings there is plenty of air from our remembering the hurt to keep our bitter fire burning brightly. So we are left with only the one method of fire
control. We must apply the Living Water over our pain and scrape the ashes away to expose the next level of ember. Over and over and over and over again we do this until finally we get to the last bitter hot spaces. This is the reason Jesus tells us to forgive seventy times seven.
It is worth the work. After the fire is put out the fertile field is once again ready to produce bountifully. When we have forgiven others and ourselves we can then be reclaimed. God can plant new seed into our beings and God promises a rich harvest.