One time when I was pretty young, one of the neighbors hosted a bunch of the neighborhood kids for a backyard campout. I don’t remember the group size for sure, but there were probably about four to six of us that had a campfire and spent the night in a tent.
This was my first time sleeping outside (it’s probably a stretch to call it camping), but I had grown up with lots of campfires. We had a roaring bonfire, and we kept it going for awhile. I’m more of an early riser than a night owl, so it didn’t take long for me to turn in for the night while a few of the other guys stayed up around the fire.
The next morning I was one of the first to wake up. The tent was humid and stuffy, so I headed outside. With nothing much else to do, I wandered over to the campfire pit. The fire had gone out, but the stones and ashes were still warm. Using a stick, I stirred the ashes around, looking for embers that were left over from the previous night.
I found a single ember that wasn’t much larger than a spark. As soon as I uncovered it, it started glowing brightly. As a fire dies down, a layer of ash settles on the hot coals and creates a blanket that prevents the coals from getting fresh oxygen. The coals use up whatever air it can reach, then go into a dormant, smoldering state until either the fuel or air run out, or more fuel and air become available. When I uncovered the ember it the fresh oxygen revived it, but it was about to run out of fuel. I looked around nearby and found some dry leaves and pine needles and set to work trying to rekindle the fire.
With some patience and fanning, the leaves and needles soon began smoking heavily, and finally caught fire. I grabbed more nearby kindling and began building the fire to the point where it was crackling. By the time everyone was awake, it was roaring again.
All of us have sin in our past. Some have a past that includes addictions of some sort, which is very difficult to ever be completely free of. It could be drugs, alcohol, pornography, or any number of other vices. A percentage of those people are able to overcome the worst of it, but they know they must completely turn their back on that addiction if they are to remain free of it. If you know someone that’s a recovering alcoholic, for example, and they haven’t had a drink for many years, it’s a bad idea to encourage them to celebrate a special occasion with “just one” small drink.
Those people know themselves; if they’ve decided to completely abstain from the object of their addiction because they know it’s the only way to remain free of it, please respect that. A roaring fire can dwindle to just one small ember, but an ember is all it takes to build a raging and crackling flame once more.