A kettle of steaming hot water is useful for preparing food and hot drinks. If the kettle is removed from the fire and left sitting on a table for a long period of time, the water will cool to room temperature. Similarly, useful cold water will assume room temperature when left unattended.
If you do not nurture the Fire of God’s Grace in your soul, you will fall lukewarm. Your heart, mind, and behavior will conform to the society around you. In other words, you will lose your Orthodox mindset (that is, your heavenly perspective), your intimate connection with God, and your zeal for living the Orthodox Way.
Remember that you are not like everyone else. Our society encourages you to conform to the secular values of the time, but you are called to be spiritual heat and light in a world that has become tepid and dim. You have been given access to the knowledge of God so that you will be different from those who remain in ordinary ignorance. The gift granted to you is not only for your own salvation, but for the benefit of others. If you conform to the mind and lifestyle of others, how can you bring them out of their lukewarm state into the living Divine Energy that warms, enlightens, and transforms?
Stay close to the Divine Source of spiritual Heat and Light so that you may fulfill your identity and useful purpose in the world.
Read: Matthew 24.3-14; Romans 12.1-2, 11; Revelation 3.15-16
Text copyright © 2018 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees