Keeping the Home Fire Burning

This last week I was quite the traveler. I left last Monday and drove the family up to Little River Christian Camp for a few nights. While the family planned out hikes and activities, I, for my part, planned a few days of soaking in the Scriptures and praying for guidance. It was nice to be away from the usual environment and the usual busyness of being a solo pastor. It was joy to be surrounded by the glories of God's creation (even if that included continuous rain keeping the whole family in the cabin unexpectedly).
Further, my stay at the camp including me keeping a fire burning to keep me and my family warm. It has been a long time since I had to tend a fire, perhaps as long ago as my honeymoon and I took to the task with relish and, dare I say it, reverence. There is just something about tending a fire that fits with my personality. Once the fire is burning, it only takes occasional maintenance to maintain the burn. As I like a distraction every hour or two, it was the perfect activity for my retreat. The only time it posed challenging was at night because I would have to stoke up the fire and then pray I woke up a time or two throughout the night to keep the fire burning and, consequently, the cabin warm. So for three days last week I became the Keeper of the Flame.
My week ended with a trip to the meeting of the Presbytery of the Cascades. The meeting was largely uneventful, except for the dismissal of two congregations to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. As I listened and thought and prayed during the discussion leading up to the dismissal I wondered what I was doing in the Presbyterian Church (USA). I understand my call as a minister and the obligation and commitment I feel to proclaim God's Word in word and deed. I feel the fire burning in my bones that the prophet Jeremiah comments on in Jeremiah 20:9:
"If I say, 'I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,' then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot."
Later, Jeremiah received an oracle that describes the nature of that burning fire in the bones when God asks, "Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks rock in pieces?" (Jeremiah 23:29). I know that God's Word in my life is a burning fire, a fire that needs to be tended so that it will keep me warm and snug all my life.
Perhaps that is why I feel a commitment to the Presbyterian Church (USA). My commitment to my denomination is similar to commitment to my family. I long to keep my brothers and sisters in the denomination warm even as I longed to keep my family warm in our little cabin this last week. Perhaps I am being paternalistic or even simplistic, but I view my ministry as an opportunity to warm others by the fire of God's Word.