I love the story in the Bible about the Emmaus road (Luke 24). How Jesus was walking with these disciples, these disciples who were confused and grieved over the events that had just come to pass. They explained to him that this wonderful prophet had been killed and now his body is missing, and they just didn’t know what to make of it. Some believed He had been resurrected, some didn’t. These guys sensed that this was a dark time for which they had no explanation and they didn’t have any assurance it was going to get better.
So Jesus spent time with them…Just as He had always done with people, He hung out. Being the very Word of God, He spoke the same truth He always spoke. He told the love story from the beginning.
And after breaking bread with them, they realized who they had been with, and asked each other, “Were our hearts not burning within us?” Were our hearts…not…burning…within us?
Jesus’ Spirit dwells in us. He has moved in. He is who He says He is in His Word, and the story is beyond my fairy tale dreams! This is for real. He loves us and wants to walk this road with us, every step of the way. Are our hearts not burning within us in acknowledgement of this reality? Burning with thankfulness…joy…desire for greater depth?
Sometimes when something big happens to someone that we don’t know very well (but could have), don’t we wish we knew them better? If it’s a bad situation, we wish we were in their inner circle so we could minister to them in a meaningful way. If it’s a good situation, we can celebrate for them from afar but we’re not exactly invited to the party. I think those Emmaus guys had hearts burning for relationship. They had been kind of on the outskirts, maybe onlookers to the whole Jesus story thing. Maybe they knew people who really knew Him though, and maybe they wished they had gotten in on it sooner.
When it comes to Jesus, there’s no reason why some of us can be close and others cannot. Is your heart burning for relationship? Whether you consider yourself a believer or not, does your heart burn to get closer, to really get in on this thing? We’re all in the same boat. We all need a Savior who will turn our face back to Him over and over again…who will lead us back to the fire of His love as our flames begin to flicker dimly out here…
I want to offer this last thought–Life is too short and people’s opinions are too fickle for you to hold back and resist offering Him your ALL! In praise and worship, in sharing His love story with others, in using your gifts, and more than any of those things, in connection with Him in the quiet of your heart and mind, BURN! Burn all day and all night. Get close to the fire and you’ll always have enough.
