Fire burns up Stuff

As I sat outside this evening, with a small campfire blazing before me, I came to the realization that God is not a campfire. No, no. When we say he is a Consuming Fire, we are not saying He is a campfire that is pretty to look at and burns down kind of quickly. We are saying he is a HUGE wildfire that consumes everything in its path. Sometimes we see footage of huge blazes out in California on TV and the firefighters are helpless to put the fire out. This is the kind of fire God is. He is a huge fire that threatens to take over our whole life if we will let Him. He cannot be contained or put out, once the fire in us is started. The things we do for him will become crazier and crazier as time goes on and He consumes more of us.
Lately I have been wrestling with issues of materialism that creep up on me so easily. I moved to Georgia less than a year ago with 2 suitcases, albeit, one was a very large bag, plus a backpack. I now have a small moving truck of stuff here. I am working on paring it down, bit by bit, so that in a few months, I can take off, unburdened by all the stuff that keeps us tethered to one place. I intend to live life with just a few bags, not rooms of stuff. I will leave behind what I cannot take, because, I cannot take any of the stuff I "own" to my final destination.
When I was twelve, the first mission trip I went on was somewhat of a disaster. I went to Paterson New Jersey with a group of 10-13 year olds to lead a VBS for kids not much younger than us. We went with a bunch of other teams and had tent revival meetings every night. It was cool and we were in a pretty spiritually dark place. While on the way there, the bus carrying all our stuff burned up. We watched it go up in flames. No one was hurt, but it was a bit traumatic. What came out of the fire were Bibles, my cameras, hair things, some clothes, burnt puppets, just remains of what had been. All the "stuff" we had packed for this trip-- and the packing list was huge-- burnt up and we had nothing. We were the recipients of some churches' kindness and we all got sleeping bags, clothes, pillows, and toiletries from their generousity. A bunch of parents (including my Dad!) came and brought some clothes from home to last the 10 days.
I guess what I am saying is that God burns up what we don't need, literally, if we hold it too tight. He is a consuming fire, sometimes literally, and will burn up everything to get our focus back on Him. That trip was the worst ever, but in retrospect, it was the best ever, since it made me so much stronger. It made me realize that "only what's for Christ will last, and nothing else really matters."