Fanning the flame

 As I have absolutely nothing to say for myself today, here's a slightly tweaked post from 2016 which I thought could stand another showing .😊

I think I might be a pyromaniac.   I absolutely adore messing about with my fire.  Not just poking at it and occasionally throwing on another stick. But seriously spending hours setting and fiddling and stoking and fanning and blowing and drawing and getting a right royal roar.  I love the smell of smoke, the charcoal fingers, the heat of embers and the satisfaction of getting some particularly stubborn log to finally blaze.  Im addicted.   It's probably terminal  The BEST PRESENT EVER was given to me by Emma a couple of years ago.  Its a collapsible metal tube called a pocket bellows.  You blow down it and it directs a very specific blast of breath onto the embers to get the fire going.  Its brilliant.  I know I need help!  




Last night as I was trying ( in vain as it happens) to get some rather damp sticks to catch light I felt the words '  Fanning The Flame'  underlined in highlighter pen in my head.   Now as I sit here at the laptop I currently have no idea of what this blog is going to be about, but the verses which come to mind are the ones in Timothy about stirring up the gifts.
In Acts 6:6 we see the elders laying hands on Timothy and praying for him.  Then later in 1 Tim 4:14 Paul writes

14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

Then again in the second letter we read
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.  (2 Tim. 1:6)
Two mentions in two letters - it must have been important to Paul.
 
Timothy is a young man full of get up and go. He has met and had fellowship with the disciples of Jesus at the most exciting time in church history. He has been with Paul and seen miracles and heard first hand Paul's amazing testimony. He has been prayed for by the apostles. You dont get a much better start to your Christian life than Timothy had. Yet despite all of this, within a short time Paul is having to lovingly kick Timothy up the behind and remind him of what God has done in him.
So I'm guessing that if Timothy needed that reminder then so do we. All the time.

Fanning into flame can mean any number of different things depending on the starting state of your fire.
If you are fanning into flame the very first ember from the first strike of the match or flint then you need a very gentle, sheltered, protected blowing.
If your fire has been going for a while but has died down then it might take it to be starved of oxygen for a minute or two to draw the flame. The old newspaper over the grate trick forcing the air in underneath the embers and increasing heat in the embers until they burst back into life.
If your fire is burning but dying back you might want to have a good old blow with the bellows.
And if you are too lazy to bother with any of the above you can always try throwing some sort of flammable liquid over the embers. Although too much will put your fire out!!

Reviving a dying fire takes a bit of effort. Some huffing and puffing. A bit of time and probably getting your hands dirty. Maybe its the same spiritually. Perhaps in order to get the fire blazing in us again we need to get down on our knees, get our hands dirty, put in a bit of effort.

 This past week I realised that I need to do a bit of flame fanning. And on Sunday, interestingly, in the church we were visiting for the weekend the message was all about just that too. But in the days since I haven't really made any great steps to do anything about it. God can speak. Paul can nag. We can read the blog. But nothing will change until we actually DO something. Start blowing on the embers. Begin fanning the flame
So today, half way through Lent, I have a challenge for you ( and for me ) . Work out what in your life has started to go a bit cold or burn down through lack of fuel or lack of care. And then work out what you need to do, practically, to fan that thing back into life. Then do it. And once its burning, keep on feeding it so it doesnt go out again .

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