Through Ash and Flame

By: Nathan Fletcher

I walked through fire, no torch in hand,

Just blistered feet and burning sand.

The sky was low, the silence loud,

My soul was wrapped in funeral shroud.

There are things you see when your eyes go blind,

Things you feel when you’ve lost your mind.

Awakened by sorrow, broken by grace,

Carrying shame you can’t erase.

I bore the weight of sins I chose,

Each one a wound that never closed.

The cross I carried, mine alone

No one could feel it in their bones.

And still…I rose at morning light,

Put on my mask, resumed the fight.

Brushed my teeth, clocked in, stood tall,

But inside me, I’d lost it all.

Faking joy is its own death,

Smiling while you hold your breath.

I saw through lies and empty cheer,

Felt their hollowness draw near.

Yet night returned, and I’d collapse,

A soul unraveling in its gaps.

There in the dark, I’d start to feel,

The slow, soft pulse of something real.

I wept.

I bled.

I bowed.

I broke.

I whispered prayers I never spoke.

I begged, repented, grieved alone,

And wore my guilt like heavy stone.

But even stones, when touched by flame,

Can turn to dust and not remain.

You burn.

You crumble.

You descend.

But broken things can start again.

I stopped confessing what God forgave,

Stopped tending to a dug out grave.

I’d reached the bottom, raw… and bare

And found, to my surprise, God there.

A breath.

A heartbeat.

A holy spark.

A rhythm dancing in the dark.

And so began the forgiveness, the slow…grief release…

Of shame, of guilt, of false belief.

My hands, once soaked in blood and lies,

Now reached for hope, for bluer skies.

The weight I held began to cease,

The storm gave way to sacred peace.

Not all at once, but breath by breath

A kind of life that conquers death.

Each breath I take, a vow, a flame,

To build anew and never hide in shame.

To shape the future, work and give,

To sow today so dreams might live.

The future’s mine, no grand parade,

But holy ground my God has made.

And in that place, love waits for me,

A haven from the angry sea.

He’s gone ahead, a place He made…and now today I know the way.

And I will walk it, come what may.

For where He is, I too shall be,

In love, in grace, eternally.

So if you’re lost in hell’s embrace,

If sorrow mocks your broken place

Take heart, dear soul, and lift as you can…your chin,

For even now, your life begins.

The very things once used to break,

God gathers for your soul’s remake.

From ash and ruin, He will rise

Not hidden, but before all eyes.

Before the world that watched you fall,

Before the ones who cursed it all,

He’ll build you strong, and sure, and free

A living proof of victory.