As the Associate Pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Hutchinson, KS, I write a weekly article for the newsletter article. I invite both members of the church and other visitors to my blog to share their thoughts!

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I’ve noticed that a few farmers in the area have already started to burn their fields.  I always love watching it…  I love the smell and the meteorologist in me likes watching how the smoke rises.  Now I should remind you that I am a true “city boy” and know hardly anything about farming, so forgive me if I speak beyond my knowledge here.  But, while driving by a burning field the other day it struck me that it was a good metaphor for sin and grace.

Think of it this way: if you were to remove from our lives that which is good and right and true, we’d still be left with a little “stubble” at the bottom: our sin.  Our sin, put softly, is that part of us which is unusable, not worth anything.  For most of us it’s not the focal point or the biggest portion, but for all of us sin is present.

Every now and then we take stock of ourselves and identify the sin for what it is.  In those times, if we’re faithful, what we need is a sort of “controlled burn” to singe that sin out of our lives.  It’s painful giving up things like pride or greed sometimes, isn’t it?

But here’s the amazing part– the sin doesn’t just burn off into nothingness.  Instead, the cleansing fire transforms it into rich nutrients that can be tilled back in to make us a better, more fertile person.  That’s God’s grace at its finest!

It’s not a perfect metaphor, and I don’t know if it can be taken much further.  But perhaps it will give you food for thought next time you see smoke in the distant Kansas sky.  As always, I welcome comments on my blog at http://ministrygeek.net.