Fuel to fire
I guess you could say that I am somewhat of a cold weather guy. I thoroughly enjoy summertime, but my definition of summer is 75-80 degrees. The cold of winter does not usually bother me much. In the dead of winter, my wife will sleep with a flat sheet and at least three blankets, while I will usually be fine with flat sheet and blanket, and sometimes just the flat sheet.
I have a brother-in-law who is the opposite of me as well when it comes to the temperature: He loves fireplaces. We attended a men’s retreat together with the church he pastored and the first thing he did when we got there was start a fire in the fireplace. When the fire would begin to fade, he would be the first one to get up to add more wood and stir things up until the flames were blazing again. I took the seat that was farthest away, and still had to strip down to a T-shirt and short pants.
The picture of stoking a fire to make sure it does not die out is the picture Solomon wants to imprint on our minds with his latest piece of advice: “Like charcoal to hot embers and wood to the flame, so is an argumentative man to kindle strife.”
Arguments and strife typically run their course and die out rather quickly. The only way they continue is if someone won’t let it go. Either they won’t quit until they get their way, or they simply just enjoy the strife – and there definitely are people who not only enjoy strife, but seemingly live for it. If a tense situation begins to run out of gas, the contentious person will add more fuel or keep using the poker to keep the flame burning.
If this is a situation you would prefer to avoid, the next time you find yourself engaged as a participant in an argument, picture in your mind a Weber grill with the charcoals flaming. You and your combatant are standing on opposite sides of the grill and each of you holds a bottle of lighter fluid. Every time you argue your point, picture yourself squirting lighter fluid on the fire. Every time your combatant argues his or her point, picture them doing the same.
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