Dirty Pan

I have a pan that I made potato soup in this week. I scorched the bottom, unfortunately, and now I'm left with a pan that needs some attention. Its soaking now. It has been, dare I admit for how long? (Pause, I'm thinking...) No, I don't think I'll admit that! Anyway, it sits there soaking and then I drain the water out and look it over, give it a little swipe with the dish rag and then put new water in it. I keep hoping that it will miraculously clean itself. Maybe if I sprayed the Scrubbling Bubbles cleaner into it it would -- probably not. I've noticed that even that cleaner doesn't live up to its name. Rats! A little elbow grease is what it needs, I know that. I keep putting off the inevitable. I'm also hoping that someone else will decide to take care of it but I know that's not going to happen!

The pan reminds me of my life. I'm scorched. (Especially now. I have a windburn on my face from the game yesterday!) Life is very messy. I can sit and stew in my grief, hoping that it will get cleaned up all by itself, but, just like the pan, my life needs some elbow grease to get all cleaned up again. But unlike the pan, sitting there waiting patiently for me to clean it up, and me only -- my life does have other help. God is ever-present, waiting for me to ask for help and I have friends who jump in and do whatever they can and faithfully pray for me.

I'll stand by my dirty pan, ummm, maybe tomorrow, and I will wash it, for sure. I'll get in there and scrub at the bottom, bemoaning the fact that I went away from it and let it scorch in the first place. While doing that, I'll think about my life and try not to bemoan the fact that I let some things go during my scorchings. In fact, maybe I'll pray this prayer from Psalm 51:10 instead of bemoaning anything: "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."

Tomorrow is the day to scrub the pot, I'm thinking just maybe tomorrow's the day!