Years ago, after ministering overseas for a while, we returned home for a break time.  Our church had prepared a lovely townhouse for us to stay in, completely furnished, and ready to move into.

A young mom, I was excited about settling in, meeting our neighbors, and serving in our church and district. A couple of evenings later, my husband left for a meeting, and I stayed with our two sons, David and Joey, then eleven and four years old.    After I put a cake to bake in the oven, we all went to check out the nearby playground.

A few minutes later, David went back for a glass of water… And returned, saying, “Uh, mom, there was a little fire coming from the oven, but I put it out.”  “Is everything ok?”, I responded.  “Yeah, I think so.”  “Thanks for doing that—good work, David.”  We all stayed in the playground, enjoying the warm summer evening…

Until we heard the wail of fire truck sirens screaming onto our street— we and others ran around to the front of our row and saw the trucks stop—in front of our house!

“David, I thought you said you put the fire out!”  “I did, mom.  Maybe the fire engines are here because of the smoke.”  “Smoke?”  “Yeah.  I forgot to tell you—when I came in to get water, there was a bunch of smoke coming from the bottom of the oven, so I used the water to put the fire out.  I thought the smoke would go away.”

It hadn’t.  Even though the fire was long gone, the smoke remained.  In response, the fire department opened both our front and back doors, set an industrial fan in the doorway, and blew even more smoke into the house!

“What’s he doing that for?”, we asked our neighbor (himself a volunteer fireman). “That’s white smoke”, he explained—“They’re blowing it in there to force the black smoke out.  Especially because it comes from burnt plastic.  Burnt plastic is toxic.  It’s not safe for you to stay here tonight, until all traces of it are gone.”

Burnt plastic?  The cake had only been in a few minutes.  But, I’d put a cooling rack in the bottom section of the oven—where those kinds of things are usually stored—in electric ovens.  This was a gas oven, where flames come up in that section. First time I’d heard of gas ovens.  Uh oh.  Ministry burn-out—literally.

Our kids have grown.  But I never forgot the lessons learned:

1) The effect and influence of our demeanor—Ever notice how airplane pilots speak in soothing, measured, tones when they encounter potentially major issues?  That’s so people won’t panic.  Our son David was so calm about the “little fire”, it made me calm.

Whatever our demeanor, it affects the atmosphere and influences other people’s feelings and reactions.  That’s how angry mobs start.  Also why one person crying can make everyone cry.  Same with laughing—everyone wants in on the joke.  How are we affecting and influencing others with our demeanor?  “A gentle answer turns away wrath.”– Prov. 15:1

2) Ignorance is not bliss when it concerns something we need to know to keep us from harm.  I was blissfully unaware of the existence of gas ovens, so I put a plastic cooling rack where flames come up. The bliss quickly became blister when the rack began to burn!  We can be “burnt” by our ignorance.  “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it”—Prov. 22:3

3) The wonders of “white” smoke– The only way to rid our house of toxic fumes was to chase the bad smoke out with good smoke.  Closing the doors would have been the worst thing.  Blowing on it ourselves would’ve been futile and caused us to breathe in the toxins.  Dousing it with water would have just created water damage and wet toxins on everything.  We needed strong, cleansing, smoke, coming from the outside in, blowing through our house, to drive out the toxic smoke permeating the inside.

Just like we need in our lives and hearts.  Sin—wrong thinking, wrong action, not doing what God tells us to do—produces a toxic, destructive, effect on our minds, heart, bodies, and relationships.  This is the “bad smoke”.  “Second-hand smoke” produced by other’s sins and bad choices can be just as toxic.

We can’t get rid of it or its toxic effect by hiding or denying it (closing the doors of our hearts).  We can’t remove it by trying hard with our own effort (“blowing on it”) – even our best effort is too weak.  Trying to cover and counteract (“douse”) it just creates further damage and a bigger mess.  The only effective way to clean our hearts and lives is the “white smoke” of the Holy Spirit—blowing strongly—taking control and driving out the toxic stuff.  So we can say, “Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a steadfast (right) spirit in me.” (Psalm 51:10)

Thanks to the white smoke, our house was cleansed, and we moved back in the next day.  Thanks to the Lord, we can live with ourselves, others, and Him, through His cleansing, “white smoke” power!