ICEMANforChrist

  SMOKE — Fire Night Virtue — Purification Cigar — A rough burner Pour — Cheap bourbon Reflection Johannestag is the night of the great German fire — a blaze meant to strip a man down to what’s real. St. Christina belongs in that heat. They said she threw herself into flames, shrieked like a soul being torn open, and walked out untouched. Not spectacle — surrender. Tonight’s smoke carries both truths: the fire that judges, and the soul that endures it. The bourbon burns. The cigar cracks. A man steps into the heat that exposes him and walks out with nothing false left to burn. Purgatory Line Only the lies catch fire. Night Question What in me still fears the flame? JUNE 23 Tuesday Fourth Week of Pentecost ST. JOHN’S EVE- International Widows-Pink Flamingos   2 Chronicles, Chapter 20, Verse 13-15 All Judah was standing before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. And the spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel, son of Ze...

  SMOKE IN THIS LIFE — June 22 Cheap night. Half a glass. She gave up every comfort—no house, no fire, nothing but God. Birds had more shelter than she did. And when deprivation wasn’t enough, she ran toward suffering like it was a doorway to Him. She threw herself into furnaces, screaming under the torture, yet walked out unburned. She plunged into the frozen Meuse for days and weeks, praying as the current dragged her into the mill wheel, bones untouched. Dogs tore her flesh as she ran through thorns, yet the wounds vanished the moment she returned. And here I sit—half a glass of wine, a cheap smoke, and the realization that holiness has never been comfortable. She stepped into fire. I avoid drafts. She let the river take her. I flinch at cold water. The point isn’t to imitate her extremes. The point is to stop pretending sanctity is soft. God still asks each of us to step into a smaller fire—the one that burns away excuses. Tonight’s question: What comfort is God asking...