LENT DEVOTIONAL 2015 – 40 DAYS OF CLASSIC ROCK – #18 – “Light My Fire” – The Doors
by Pastor Kyle Durbin, Centenary UMC
“Light My Fire,” the definitive breakthrough song of The Doors, experienced number one status on the Billboard chart for several weeks, nearly a year after it was released as a single in 1967. Perhaps the song is most famously remembered as the performance that earned The Doors and Jim Morrison exclusive membership in the “Banned From The Ed Sullivan Show,” club, along with with likes of Elvis Presley.
In it’s most innocent interpretation, the song is a romantic pleading from a man to a woman, though the sexual overtones of the lyrics probably suggest a more intimate desire. While the producers of The Ed Sullivan Show were fixated on the possible drug reference of the light, “girl, we couldn’t get much higher,” the song is genuinely more focused on the title line, “come on, baby, light my fire.” Hebrews 12:29 reads, “because our God really is a consuming fire.” Meanwhile, Malachi 3: 2-3 informs us, “He is like the refiner’s fire or the cleaner’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver.” When God lights the fire in our heart, we are sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit, as our thoughts are purified, and our actions conform to the will of our Creator.
Holy God, light our fire. Light the fire in our hearts that sparks the desire to do your will on earth, as it is done in heaven, so that we can be refined by your love and grace and the world might be prepared for your Kingdom. Amen.
the harlequin complex 