We Are Not On Fire!

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“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!”                                                                  Psalms 139:2

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I can say and do some crazy things when I am excited. This past February, my family and I were on vacation and I was broiling meat in the oven for dinner. Five minutes into the cooking process, smoke started billowing out of the oven. I opened the oven and discovered the grease from the meat was on fire. I pulled the meat out of the oven and extinguished the flames. The condo was full of smoke and the smoke alarm was blasting.  While the boys fanned the smoke away from the alarm, I flipped the meat over and stuck it back under the broiler.
 
In an effort to clear the smoke from the condo faster, I tried creating a cross breeze by opening the sliding glass door and the front door that led to a hallway.  As I opened the front I looked back at the oven. Once again smoke was billowing out and when I opened the oven door I discovered that the grease from the meat was on fire again!
 
While the smoke alarm was going off, I said to my husband Sean, “We need to call the front desk so they know we don’t have a fire.” Just as I finished my sentence the fire alarm in the hallway started screaming. Now the whole building is fully aware of my inability to safely broil meat.
 
Just then the phone rang, I forcefully pointed to the phone and yelled at the top of my lungs “WE ARE NOT ON FIRE!” My husband simply said, “I know”. He calmly answered the phone with “Hello?” like nothing was going on. Condo management was calling because their central monitoring system indicated two activated fire alarms and they wanted to know if they needed to call 911.
 
After the smoke cleared and the fire alarms stopped, we sat down to charred meat and we began laughing uncontrollably. No one could figure out why I put the meat back in the oven after it caught on fire the first time or why I yelled, “We are not on fire!”  
 
Although there is some humor in this situation, the things we say and do under stress can be surprising and can reveal what is really going on in our hearts. C.S. Lewis gives some keen insight in his book Mere Christianity when he explains how our sinful actions often occur when we are caught off guard by unexpected, stressful situations. He remarked, “Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth.”
 
So often we pray for a trouble-free life, but it is these troubles that help us see the sin we excuse or ignore. When life is easy and things are going our way, we can be blind to the sin that is lurking in our hearts. The Lord will use the pressure and stress of life, to reveal what is really going on deep inside.  David prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” Psalms 139:23-24 (ESV)
 
This is a very different prayer than the prayer for a trouble-free life. This prayer expresses a desire for the Holy Spirit to conform us into the image of Christ. This is the kind of prayer I want to have the strength and faith to pray.

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