So, the other day I nearly set my house on fire while trying to warm up some Taco shells. Seriously. It all seems so funny now, but in the “heat” of the moment it was terrifying. I had just finished preparing the taco meat, got the shells arranged on the cookie sheet, turned on the stove (which I admit I rarely use) and set it to broil. I’ve never used the broil setting on this oven before, but I figured it would warm them up a little quicker. I shoved the cookie sheet in the oven and shut the door. My husband was sitting at his computer on the other side of the kitchen, so I turned to say something to him. After about 60 seconds of talking, I smelled something. I turned around and saw smoke billowing out of the oven and thought, “Oh great, I burned them!” Boy was I right! I opened the oven door and flames leapt out at me! “It’s one fire!”, I yelled and Scott jumped up from his seat. I quickly tried to think of a way to get the fire to go out....”grab the box of salt!” I yelled. Scott reached into the pantry and pulled out a salt shaker. “No! Not that!”, I yelled and reached past him to grab the Morton’s Salt container. I “feverishly” tried to pour the salt out onto the flames and smother them....but the stream of salt was nothing compared to the flames that roared in my oven. My youngest son Jarod ran in and yelled, “Oh my gosh, what’s going on?!” “The fire extinguisher!”, I thought, and jerked open the cabinet doors under the kitchen sink. I pointed it at the fire and pressed the lever for all I was worth....nothing. “Read the directions!”, Jarod yelled. It was at this moment that I thought to myself, “Why on earth have I not read the directions on this thing BEFORE?! I have no idea how to operate it!” I was beginning to panic as the flames leapt higher and higher out of the oven. I tried to read the directions, but in the panicked state I was in, I could read NOTHING! Jarod grabbed a large pot from under the counter and ran to the sink to fill it with water. “NO! I yelled, that will make it worse!!” Abandoning the pot, he yelled, “What do we do??!!” Out of the corner of my eye I spied a beach towel that one of my boys had brought in and thrown in the floor and for once I was so very glad that they are slobs! I grabbed it and handed it to my husband and said, “Here, beat it with this!” So, Scott commenced to slapping at the fire over and over, and in between calling out, “Call 911!! Call 911!!” I had no intentions of calling 911 unless the fire successfully escaped the oven. I’d never live it down! I could see it in the headlines, “Woman burns house down with Taco shells!” Finally, after great effort with the beach towel, the fire died down, the taco shells reduced to ashes and a few tiny flames I put out with the spatula. Coughing, exhausted and completely rattled to the core, the three of us slumped against the kitchen counter. “WOW!”, I said. That was exciting! Having calmed down a bit, I looked at the fire extinguisher again, and it said “empty” on the gauge! We’d never used it before, but it was old and evidently all the pressure had leaked out over the years. Thankfully, the oven still works, nothing was damaged, no one was burned and the only casualty was my trusty old cookie sheet.
Believe it or not, all that chaos took only maybe 5 minutes to play out. Seemed like hours while we were in the midst of it. I tell you all this because it made me think. How many times have we neglected to read God’s word, to prepare ourselves, our hearts, for when difficulties come, so that we know how to handle them, know where to turn and what to do? If we’re prepared for troubles, when they come knocking we have the perfect tool to “extinguish” them. If we’re not, and we try to find a way to do it on our own, in a state of panic, we’re just gonna run in circles and our troubles are gonna get the best of us. God left us perfect directions. He’s given us all the tools we need. But if we never pick up His word and read what He has to say, and we just flounder around trying to do it our way, we’re gonna get burned.
"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." ~ Joshua 1:8
"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." ~ Joshua 1:8
