From my study in Akasia, Pretoria, I look out at a nation holding its breath.
Scripture: "Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin." (Zechariah 4:10)
I was standing in my kitchen in Akasia, staring at a pile of firewood my neighbour had dropped off. A massive, rain-soaked log sat on top—thick, heavy, impressive. I grabbed my matches and tried to light it. Strike. Nothing. Strike again. A flicker, then death. I crouched there for twenty minutes, frustrated, until a voice from my childhood came back to me: “Umlando awuqali ngentaba, uqala ngetshe” a story does not begin with a mountain, it begins with a pebble.
I pushed the great log aside. Beneath it lay tiny, brittle twigs the kind you'd normally sweep away. I struck one match, touched it to the dry kindling, and within seconds, a small fire danced. I fed it twig by twig, then small branches, and finally whoosh that great, damp log caught fire and burned all night.
That is the law of momentum: You cannot ignite the whole forest. You can only kindle the first twig.
The Law of the Kindling
What you cannot finish today, you can begin today. What you cannot build in a day, you can lay a brick for in a moment.
Here in South Africa, we are experts at staring at mountains. We look at the 32.7% unemployment rate a mountain. We look at the 4.7 million unemployed youth a mountain. We look at the 23 million living in poverty a mountain. We look at the anti-immigrant protests, the threats of social unrest, the R600 million security operations, the tensions between SAPS and the Investigating Directorate mountain upon mountain upon mountain.
And we freeze.
We stand before these great, rain-soaked logs of national crisis, strike match after match, and wonder why nothing catches fire. We pray, “God, fix South Africa!” and heaven hears our cry, but we have handed God a wet log and asked Him to light it.
The Scripture declares unequivocally: “Who has despised the day of small things?” The question assumes we have. We have despised the small. We have dismissed the tiny. We have overlooked the twig while fixating on the tree.
The Argument from First Principles
Let us define our terms clearly:
· Momentum is not the speed of your movement; it is the resistance of your movement to stopping. Momentum is what keeps you going when the wind shifts.
· Kindling is not the final fuel; it is the initial fuel the dry, fragile, unimpressive beginning that makes all subsequent fuel combustible.
The argument can be formulated thus:
Premise 1: Every great fire begins with a single ignition point.
Premise 2: The ignition point requires the driest, smallest, most combustible material not the largest.
Premise 3: What is true of fire is true of every human endeavour, from personal transformation to national renewal.
Conclusion: Therefore, to build momentum, you must identify and ignite the smallest faithful action available to you and let God do the rest.
A common objection is: “But my problem is too big for small actions! What difference can one sentence, one prayer, one conversation possibly make?”
However, this fails because it confuses size with significance. The mustard seed is small, yet it becomes the largest of garden plants. Five loaves and two fish are small, yet they feed thousands. Twelve disciples are small, yet they turn the world upside down. Small is not insignificant small is strategic. God deliberately chooses the small to shame the strong. Why? So that no one can boast that human muscle built what only divine power could produce.
Personal Testimony: The Sentence That Changed Everything
I remember the day I decided to write my first book. I sat at this very desk in Akasia, staring at a blank screen. The project felt impossible chapters, research, editing, publishing. I was paralysed. So I closed my eyes and prayed: “God, help me write this book.”
Silence.
Then the Spirit whispered: “Write one sentence.”
I argued. “Lord, one sentence is nothing. I need to write a whole chapter!”
“Write one sentence in obedience.”
So I wrote: “God loves you because of who you are, but He blesses you because of what you do.”
That single sentence became a paragraph. That paragraph became a page. That page became a chapter. That chapter became a book. And that book, The Happy Lemon, has travelled to places I have never been.
The spark of that small completion ignited the next twig.
The Prophetic Confrontation: The Scapegoat Syndrome
We must sound the alarm against a great error sweeping our land. When South Africans face overwhelming problems, the temptation is to find a scapegoat someone to blame. Anti-immigrant sentiment has intensified. Vigilante groups march through communities. Migrants are blamed for crime, unemployment, and the collapse of public services.
But the Scripture declares: “The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
Let me speak plainly: Xenophobia, Afrophobia, ethnic chauvinism, and vigilante politics offer no way out. They will not create jobs. They will not reopen factories. They will not fix municipalities. They will not end the 45.8% youth unemployment rate. They are the desperate act of a people who have lost the art of kindling who have forgotten that real change begins not with blaming others, but with the small, faithful work in front of you.
The problem is not that our problems are too big. The problem is that we have stopped believing in small beginnings.
The Divine Mathematics of Momentum
Here is what heaven knows that earth forgets:
1. God rejoices over the plumb line, not just the finished temple. The Lord does not wait for your completion to celebrate He rejoices to see the work begin. He is the God who delights in first steps.
2. What you do daily determines what you become permanently. The young person who reads one verse of Scripture daily will, in a year, have read the entire Bible. The entrepreneur who makes one phone call daily will, in a year, have made 365 connections. The activist who serves one person daily will, in a year, have touched 365 lives.
3. You will never possess what you are unwilling to pursue. Momentum is not given—it is built. It is not a gift it is a discipline. It is not a miracle it is a method.
True liberation is found only in submitting to the law of the kindling.
The Call to Action
So here is my question to you, fellow South African:
Are you waiting for the whole forest to ignite before you strike a match?
Are you waiting for the unemployment rate to drop before you start that business?
Are you waiting for the perfect moment before you write that book, start that ministry, have that conversation, take that step?
The enemy of momentum is not failure it is waiting.
Today, I challenge you:
· Find the tiny, dry twig of a first step.
· Do not try to light the damp log of the whole goal.
· Strike the match of simple obedience.
· Watch the God who commands flames to fall from heaven ignite a blaze of progress you could never have manufactured.
Jesus Christ Himself began His public ministry not with a grand entrance, but with a baptism in a muddy river. He chose twelve ordinary men not generals, not scholars, not politicians. He built a movement on the kindling of faithfulness. And that small fire has burned for two thousand years.
The Unshakable Promise
“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord Almighty.
The same Spirit who hovered over the chaos of creation now hovers over your small beginning. The same eyes that scanned the whole earth and rejoiced over Zerubbabel's plumb line now watch your tiny act of obedience. The same God who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Your prayer is not, “God, fix South Africa.”
Your prayer is, “God, help me love my neighbour today.”
Your prayer is not, “God, end unemployment.”
Your prayer is, “God, help me hire one person this year.”
Your prayer is not, “God, heal this nation.”
Your prayer is, “God, help me speak one word of peace in my community.”
Protect this holy kindling ritual. Guard it with your life. The enemy will try to convince you that your small beginning is meaningless—that it is too small, too late, too insignificant. Do not believe him. The Lord rejoices to see the work begin.
Prayer
Holy Spirit, help me find the tiny twig of faithful beginning today. Kindle holy momentum in my life. Break the paralysis of the great log. Give me eyes to see the kindling, courage to strike the match, and faith to watch You build the fire. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, who began with a manger and ended with an empty tomb Amen.
From my study in Akasia, I look out at a nation holding its breath. But I am not afraid. Because I have seen what happens when one match meets dry kindling. And I know the God who commands the flames.
Go. Find your twig. Strike your match. Watch Him burn.
Harold Mawela
Akasia, Pretoria
24 June 2026
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