Article February 25, 2019 Issue

Fired up!

Susan Angle Damone

There I was at a regional meeting for the company for which I work. One of the activities that was being promoted was a three-day event with a charismatic motivational speaker. Two employees were enthusiastically sharing testimonials of their experiences of attending a prior conference by the same speaker. Some of their comments were compelling.

I had read about and watched the motivational speaker online. While he was very animated and confident, I hadn’t really connected with the message. And yet I could see how his success spoke to people’s desires to find something that will make them happy, financially successful, and well-liked. It’s understandable that people want to feel and experience this.

Motivational speakers often talk about being “fired up.” But here’s a little bit of a different take on this phrase. The Bible describes two men who spoke with Christ Jesus on their walk to Emmaus after Jesus’ crucifixion (see Luke 24:13–32). They did not recognize him and were not aware of his resurrection. Yet they knew that the man with whom they had spoken was extraordinary. “And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” This was not a mere emotional response, but rather evidence of the movement of their hearts and their active spiritual sense. They had been exposed to the absolute truths of biblical prophecy and its manifestation in Christ Jesus, and they felt changed. Talk about being fired up!

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Loving remembrance, free of grief