I got lazy when we started building a burn pile of brush. I had a small area of thick brush and small trees I needed to clear. Instead of cutting everything down, I just threw all my other brush and burnable trash in and around the trees. I never really stepped back to see how big of an area I was going to burn.
My Beautiful Wife asked if we should call the volunteer fire department to come over and monitor the fire. I assured her that I could handle it with the garden hose. There was no wind and the closest thing in the area was an utility pole about twenty feet away.
I lit the fire and everything went great. It started out slow and I was keeping up with it. I figured the fire must have been getting pretty hot when my family sitting in lawn chairs about forty feet away started moving across the road. It was amusing to watch.
Someone said, “Tom, the electric pole is on fire.” What? How did that happen? I never let the flames get within ten feet of the pole! The fire was so hot, it had ignited the creosote on the pole without touching it. I didn’t see that coming! The fire was so hot, I couldn’t get close enough to spray the water directly on the burning part of the pole. The flames continued to climb the pole and get closer to the electric lines. 
I didn’t have enough water pressure to reach the top of the pole and I didn’t want our neighbors to lose power. I said, “You better call the fire department.” When the fire fighters arrived, they got right to work. They put out the fire on the pole and they left. No lecture on fire safety. They didn’t even call me a knucklehead.
I have two takeaways from my little adventure. First, make my burn piles smaller. Second, I can be burned by the fire without being in the flames. (I did actually get a second degree burn on my elbow from the heat.) The second takeaway can be applied to other situations in life. I don’t have to be in the middle of the fire (situation) to get burned (be affected by the consequences).
Lord, thank you for sending the fire fighters to help me control the fire. Thank you for using the situation as teachable moment for one of Your knucklehead kids.
Have you been in a situation you, figuratively, got burned from the heat of the flames? What did you learn from it? What will you do differently in the future? Share your thoughts in the comment area.
