Sometimes our spiritual lives are a lot like a bowl of Rice Krispies.  When first poured into the bowl with some milk we snap, crackle, and pop.  But next thing you know the snapping, crackling, and popping gradually fades away and we are just a soggy, silent bowl of cereal that no one wants to come near.

How do we maintain the excitement of first meeting Jesus?  Let’s take for example that you are getting ready to fix some macaroni and cheese for dinner.  You get your box of macaroni and cheese and you pour it into a pot and put it on the stove.  But you don’t just let it sit there, in order for it to get done you turn on the fire…..literal or electric.  Now that your macaroni and cheese is in the presence of the fire it becomes hot and you can put it to good use.

The fire represents the Holy Spirit.  When Jesus left this earth He told His disciples that He would send them the Holy Spirit.  When we are in the presence of the Holy Spirit we are on fire, it’s when we get out of the fire that we are no longer hot. 

Now I know that most people will say that it is not realistic to remain in the fire in your spiritual life, that there are ups and downs.  Yes, there are ups and downs, but remaining in the fire is what gets us through the ups and downs.  People like to compare a marriage relationship to our relationship with God.  At first we are infatuated and then it moves on to true love.  So basically it is okay and natural to lose that first excitement of meeting that special someone.  Yes, that is generally what happens, but my opinion differs  from that.  I believe that we can maintain our infatuation with God, but we do need the fire of the Holy Spirit to do that.  I believe this because despite the fact that I met my husband almost nine years ago, I’m still infatuated with the man.  He adds the special sparkle to my day.  I don’t like him to walk out the door to work, let alone go on a trip for a few days.  I think about him throughout the day and eagerly await the time he will arrive home from work. 

So many people seem to want that type of relationship, where the infatuation doesn’t end, but so few people seem to achieve it.  The excitement wears off and they move on to the next person who catches their interest rather than maintaining the excitement of the original relationship.  

What are the differences between infatuation and the so-called moving on to ‘real love’?  When you are infatuated you constantly think about the other person.  You constantly think good thoughts about the other person, it’s only when we move on to the so-called ‘real love’ that we begin to think negative thoughts about the person we love.  Of course constantly thinking positive thoughts about someones leads us to want to spend lots of time with them and causes us to do fun and creative things for and with them.  I like the idea of having a fairy tale marriage, so when I find myself thinking negative thoughts about my husband, I stop.  He hasn’t changed since I met him, he is still that same wonderful person now that he was then, in fact he is more wonderful now than he was when I met him.  But if I allow myself to think negative thoughts about him and dwell on that, then that is the person that he becomes to me.  Yes, love grows over the years, but it doesn’t have to decrease our infatuation, in fact our infatuation should grow along with our love.

We all want our love lives to snap, crackle and pop with that special person in our lives and with God.  In our spiritual lives it is up to us to stay in the presence of the Holy Spirit and therefore stay in the fire that he imparts to us.  Without the fire we are just cold, hard, macaroni and cheese, but in the presence of the fire we become hot and God can use us to His glory.