True Hope and a Future

They say timing is everything, and now my timer doesn’t work! I came home from the church dinner last night exhausted, having spent the previous four hours on my feet. I’m thankful that I didn’t go directly to bed, because little did I know, my work for the day was not yet over. At 10:45 p.m., my oven timer went off. This is worth mentioning because of the fact that I never set my timer in the first place!

I went to investigate and found a letter and number where the digital clock should be showing the time. After pushing all the buttons and finding none of them worked, I went to get the manual. As my father always said, “If all else fails, read the instructions.”


I knew storing the manual with my cookbooks would come in handy someday, and this was that day! Being totally exhausted and listening to continuous beeping, locating the manual quickly is key. Once I found the right page, I was instructed to press the “clear” button.

Really? I never would have thought of that!

Since this was included in my previous button-pushing, I continued on to the next suggestion, which was to unplug the oven for thirty seconds and then plug it back in and see what happens. Now, the plug happens to be at the bottom of the back of the oven, which means I had to pull it out from the wall to unplug it. (Why don't these things happen when my husband is home?)

After a fair amount of maneuvering I was able to get the oven unplugged and silence the beeper. After waiting the allotted time, I plugged it back in. Ahhh, silence, followed by “beep…beep…beep.” Since it was after 11:00 p.m., I decided that the best course of action would be to unplug it so that I could get some sleep and deal with it later.

Journey, our Thursday Bible study, started back up today, so I didn’t have time for the oven in the morning. By the time I made it home from church at 1:00 p.m., I had totally forgotten about it, at least until I saw it sitting in the middle of my kitchen. How easy it is to push unpleasant tasks out of our mind!

Now theoretically I move my oven and clean around it once a year, but practically speaking, I don’t think it happens quite that often. At least that’s what the sides of the oven and the floor beneath it would indicate. Looking back, there were several times when something would spill between the oven and the counter and I would think, “I really should move the oven and clean that up,” but that’s as far as it went.

Aren’t we the same way with our lives? The Holy Spirit will give us little nudges and we think, “I really shouldn’t jump to conclusions,” or “I shouldn’t have said that,” or “I should offer to help that person,” but then we don’t act on it and the thought exits our mind just as quickly as it entered. But just like the junk started building up on my oven, so sin builds up in us. That is why in Lamentations it says, “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD.” (3:40) We need to address our sins as they occur, so that we can avoid sin build-up.

I scrubbed the textured sides of my oven, but couldn’t get it clean. I had to make a paste out of baking soda and water to reach down into the crevices. We can’t get ourselves clean either, but God will clean us up if we ask Him to.
“Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind;” (Psalm 26:2)

“wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." (Psalm 51:7)

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” Even in situations like this, there is plenty to be thankful for:

Lord, thank you that I have an oven.
Thank you for a good night’s sleep.
Thank you for people who know how to fix these things.
Thank you for a microwave and leftover baked potatoes!

and most of all,

Thank you for cleaning me up even better than I can clean up my oven, and finding me worth the effort.