Are you afraid of the fire?

When Spirit invites you into the fire don’t ask if you’ll get burned. When Spirit invites you to be reborn don’t say you’re afraid to die. When Spirit invites you to set yourself free don’t ask what it will cost. This Rumi-based poem is an invitation to enter the fire and let it burn away all that no longer serves you. Are you avoiding the fire of life because you fear you will be consumed. We will destroy the shield we carefully built around our doubts and trauma and loose the beasts we have imprisoned. Fire is the basis of many metaphors. When a person has fire in his belly he takes on life with passion and determination. When her flame issnuffed, she has died and lost the spark of life. The athlete is "on fire" when he is playing with other worldly focus that can’t be explained with words and is like letting the Gods play tthrough you. To be baptized by fire is to learn in life through direct experience, not stories of other’s battles with the flames. Another great Rumi observation: “If your knowledge of fire has been turned to certainty by words alone, then seek to be cooked by the fire itself. Don’t abide in borrowed certainty. There is no real certainty until you burn. If you wish for this, sit down in the fire.” Moving into the fire means having the courage to take on life and to directly experience its heat and light as a sacred mission. You may get burned, but the hero pushes forward anyway, because what is life without passion and meaning. “The hero and the coward both feel exactly the same fear, only the hero confronts his fear and converts it into fire.” Cus D'amato. The first step toward igniting your fire is admitting the fear to the world and then walking into that fire-fear anyway with courage and passion. Are you afraid of the fire of life? Can you tell me in the comments why and how you have overcome it or plan to walk into the flames anyway. Visit banishingsnakeswithfire.com.