But the reality is that until I get my relational life settled (as someone who isn’t called to singleness), I’m currently hamstrung in fully being the “mature disciple” that I am called to be. So in away, it helps me give my life away to them.

I suppose in some ways, my predicament, and somewhat hectic dating life, has given me a fair bit of life experience that allows me to know what I’m talking about as I work with young adults. That process is handicapped by competing with a renewed need to get some of my life back together – finding a life-mate to share life with. So, while I’m at a stage in life where I should be giving back and focusing on giving my life away. I had only had one girlfriend prior to meeting the woman who I was married to. I was married for 10 years and have been divorced for the past 9. You see, I was a late bloomer when it came to romantic relationships. It dawned on me that in some ways I’m experiencing a retardation in my discipleship. But Sacred Fire provided a keen mirror that showed me some of my blind spots. In many ways I am proficient in the faith, and some might even say that I have a certain degree of mastery of parts of it. Passing the torch to younger folks and equipping them to blossom and grow.Ī 45 year-old campus minister at a major university, I’m at an age that is statistically beyond middle age for the life expectancy for the average American male. Upon reaching middle age, we shift and are invited to grow toward “mature discipleship” which has us owning our general proficiency in the faith and training our sights on giving our lives away. The author’s basic premise is that in our young adult years, Christians are to focus on and express “essential discipleship” – which is about getting the basics of the faith and the struggle “to get our lives together.” (The focus of the previous book – which is ideal for college students, young persons in various trades or in the military, and those recently beyond those years). Sacred Fire picks up where his previous book, The Holy Longing, leaves off. This book gave me pause on numerous occasions. I didn’t feel judged by the book, but it was a bit of an uncomfortable awakening as I journeyed deeper and deeper into this 342 page gem. You see while the title appealed to me, and while I fancied myself as someone who is a “deep human” and who is a relatively “mature Christian” – reading Rolheiser’s frank words made it clear to me that I have quite a ways to go.

At a certain point I wasn’t so sure if I truly wanted to keep going. I was… that is, until I started to read it.

Book sacred fire