Man of Fire: Poetry and Reflections for Setting The World on Fire

[Poem: Above] I recorded this poem several years ago — shout out to Drew Bartels for the freestyle piano that he threw down. A reminder of the constant journey to set our hearts aflame and live a life of blazing brilliance!

[Below: Here are some reflections in the same spirit as the poem.]

This quote by St. Catherine of Siena, a 14th century Italian theologian and mystic, is moving me right now:

“Be Who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire.”

I had never heard of St. Catherine, before I recently found her quoted in Brad Lomenick’s book H3 Leadership. It’s firing me up!

This is how I have been called to set the world on fire:

I imagine a world in which all people experience the joy and effectiveness of serving others in alignment with their unique Identity, Design, and Calling.

I feel the most alive when I am calling forth the beauty and excellence of God’s design in the human in front of me.

Inviting people into transformation. Inviting people to know that they are utterly loved, intentionally designed, and that they have beautiful work to do.

Most people either don’t know this about themselves, can’t name it, or they feel hindered and trapped in circumstances that restrict them.

We are buried under the burden of names that God never called us. Names that maybe our family of origin gave us, or names that negative circumstances or traumas bestowed upon us.

For 48 years I carried the names of Coward and Failure and Fraud, deep in my soul, so deep I didn’t even know they were there.

People called me those things. I called myself those things. The enemy called me those things.

I accepted them as part of my identity. Nothing hinders the calling of God more.

We can live our whole lives with names like this all tangled up and knotted into our identity, so close, that we can’t even see that they are names. They just feel like realities. Things that were always true. Things beneath words, and the realm of instinct.

I want everyone to be free of false identities, false names. So we can actually be who God made us to be, pure and unrefined. Unedited.

You could set the world on fire.

But picture your life as a magnifying glass, held up to the sun. I remember the awe that I experienced as a kid, when I use the magnifying glass to burn stuff in my yard. I was burning everything. Wood, ants, whatever I could. But I had to angle the magnifying glass just right.

The beam of light wouldn’t burn until it got super tight and focused. Then things would start to blacken and and the smoke would curl up into the air.

I think this is what your Calling is like.

I believe it takes an investment of time, reflection and prayer to focus the beam of your calling to the point where it starts to burn through all the nonsense and distractions.

Most of us are just so busy. We have so many commitments and distractions.

And so we neglect apply our energies to understanding perhaps the most important thing about our life: Who am I? How am I built? What is my work?

I want you to know these things, to such a degree of clarity, that you are able to burn through distractions and obstacles.

I want to help you leverage the full weight of the Image of God inside of you to impact the world around you.

That’s the clarified calling that I have discovered through the same process of focusing. It’s what I will be doing until the day that I die.

Here’s a map for you to begin work if this resonates with your soul.

These are the questions you need to answer. Answer as specifically as you can, and then refined over time.

Identity. Who am I beneath all appearances? What is the deepest and truest fact about me? (Hint: It has to do with love.)

Design. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. How specifically have I been formed? What is my bent? Strengths and weaknesses? Passions and experiences?

Calling. What am I here to do? What is the groan of my heart? What do I want to see more of in the world?

I know wading into these questions can feel overwhelming. You might be afraid the answers aren’t there, or that you will end up disappointed and discouraged.

But when you accept defeat without trying, then you will have a smaller life.

If you can find the will to struggle, and the power to fail and rise again, you will have an adventure.

You might even set the world on fire.

Take the next step of your journey to set the world on fire.

• Pray and journal about the three aspects of identity: Identity, Design, and Calling. Have a conversation with God, take notes.

• Ask God to show you if there are names that you have accepted that are names that God never called you.

• Read the book Living Fearless by Jamie Winship -- it does a great job of walking you through some of these questions.

• Take the Superpower Quest Assessment to get a detailed map of your design strengths and weaknesses at assessment.superpowerquest.com.

Take your one next step!