Ezekiel's Flaming Poop
A Redemptive Reversal
Sometimes memes about sweatpants, coffee, and flaming poop inspire me. This is probably because life is full of poop and some memes need a redemptive reversal. Jesus referred to these poop piles as trials and tribulations. Back in the really old days, people sometimes cooked their bread over flaming poop piles because, waste not want not, used to be a thing people practiced. Some people like Ezekiel even used bread cooked over flaming poop to help sketchy priests and the people see themselves how God saw them- super sketchy, as in, fire hose required to get all the dirt washed off kind of sketchy. So super sketchy that Mike Rowe might have even put those priests and people on an episode of Dirty Jobs.
If you focus on the flaming poop instead of the edible bread, you might miss the redeeming qualities present in the flaming poop that cooked the bread that gave you sustenance. I truly hope knowing this fun fact about Eziekiel’s flaming poop bread doesn’t hurt the Ezekiel bread sales.
The poop struggle is real. Illness, finances, relationships, or _______. But lighting that poop on fire and making something new with it can help us build character. As Paul points out in Romans chapter 5, the poop struggle should give you Hope because God has already proven His intention to complete the work that He has started in you because of the love Christ has shown us and has poured out into the hearts of His children through the Holy Spirit. The Heavenly Father’s love is not being poured into your heart through the trickle of a meandering Uintah Mountain stream in August. God wants you to experience the full, immense outpouring of His love through the Holy Spirit, like a rushing Utah creek after a winter of epic apocalyptic snowfall. Stop staring at the poop Gladys. Light that poop pile on fire and purify (redeem) it. Help your friends find their way out of the poop piles they’ve been given. Bring them matches instead of casseroles. Light that poop pile on fire and watch it go up in flames together. And then leave your friend with a T-shirt that has “chin up buttercup” written on it because that nice gesture might even help your lamenting friend remember that they must set fire to their poop piles in your absence should you decide to leave them by taking an imaginary jet plane to Dallas when you are really traveling via a white minivan with new tires. Thinking about the flaming poop and seeing the yellow T-shirt might just make it easier for your lamenting friend to actually crack open her Bible and read that Romans 5 passage you left her with to think about, even if it was out of character for you to mention that in the first place, which actually adds to the mystery of it all.
Take away- don’t let the poop piles aka thorns and thistles aka trials and tribulations put out your inner Holy Spirit fire. I think it’s supposed to be about perseverance and testing your faith and building your character.
Sidenote aka left turn- sometimes the Holy Spirit feels like a fire hose. I think that’s what it may have felt like on the day of Pentecost. Maybe it even felt like 3 fire hoses because a lot was accomplished by the church working in Holy Spirit power. For more on that, see our previous devotional, Pentecost Sunday.
And, in case you were wondering if writing my own devotionals is based on true stories, here’s the answer to that burning question- Yes, my yellow T-shirt friend is real, and our friendship is not based on MLM marketing schemes that promise to make us rich and give us perfect, beautiful lives. We are already beautiful because God made us in His image, and we are being made perfect which requires patience.
During a recent incident in a long string of unfortunate, tribulation, undulations, my love (husband) asked me if I wished “Father Knows Best” was real which made me laugh. Praise God- we have a Father in Heaven Who knows what’s best.
Do you ever wonder what it was like before old tv shows like Father Knows Best tricked us into thinking everyone else was living their best life now, perfectly? Maybe grit is really about living an ordinary Holy Spirit powered life, with its flaming poop piles, and persisting in the face of hardship not because it will make your circumstances better, but because it will make you better i.e., love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Keep the faith, finish the race. The Epistles in a nutshell.
“Man’s work faileth, Christ’s availeth, He is all our righteousness.”
~ Praise the Savior, Now and Ever
