Are You Blowing Out Your Own Flames?

There's a lesson hiding in every ordinary moment — if you're paying attention.

A few weeks ago, I found myself on vacation at a game reserve in South Africa, attempting something my family would find quietly hilarious: making a braai fire. Alone. Without expert supervision. For the uninitiated, a braai is not a BBQ. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

I read the instructions on the charcoal packet: Charmingly written, clearly by someone who'd watched a lot of first-timers fail.

I used the right fire starters. I did everything right, or so I thought. And then I blew. And blew. And blew some more.

The flames kept dying. The coals stayed stubbornly dark. An hour in, with most of my fire starters used up and my patience at its end, I gave up — just barely got my meat cooked on a sad little flame and sat down to eat my meal in mild defeat.

Then, about an hour later, I wandered back to retrieve the meat tongs.

The coals were perfectly hot. Deep, glowing, radiating exactly the heat I'd been desperate for earlier.

I laughed out loud — at the fire, and at myself.

Here's what I'd missed: the instructions said to gently whisper the fire to life. Not frantically. Not hard enough to get breathless. A gentle whisper.

The more frustrated I got, the harder I blew. And the harder I blew, the more I extinguished the very thing I was trying to ignite.

Sound familiar?

Impatience doesn't speed things up. It blows out the flame.

We do this with our dreams. We do this with our relationships. We do this with the very things God is quietly building in us — we panic, we force, we frantically try to make something happen on our timeline. And in doing so, we smother the slow, steady heat already doing its work beneath.

Moses spent 40 years in the desert before God called him to lead a nation. Forty years of what must have felt like nothing happening. But the desert wasn't a delay — it was the fire being built, slowly, at exactly the right temperature.

God breathes life into our dreams, our relationships, our work.

But He breathes gently. And He breathes on His schedule — not ours.

The coals don't need your panic. They need your patience.

What are you frantically blowing on right now — that might just need you to step back and trust the heat that's already there?

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