Food for Thought...The Goo in the Pan

Remember all the cooking I've been doing this week?  Well, when I made the Fig and Sausage Salad for Friday night's meal deliveries, I made a mess in my pan that looked very similarly to this loveliness on the left.  My mess was actually worse because it was from caramelizing onions.  It was the kind of burnt on mess that if I understood chemical reactions, I'd swear that the onion juice had somehow formed an impenetrable chemical bond with the bottom of my pan.  I don't understand chemical reactions though...but I am fairly certain that actual scenario isn't actually possible.

So it soaked overnight and then when i still couldn't get it off, I stuck it in the dishwasher to see if that helped at all.


It didn't.  But I think I really knew that.  I just wanted to buy myself another day before I had to deal with it.  Because the stuff had to come off, lest it ruin every subsequent thing I endeavor to cook in that pan.  I could avoid it, but I couldn't leave it.

So this morning, when I was unloading the dishwasher, there it was waiting for me in all of it's burnt on glory.

This pan called for a heavy duty cleaner....

And... some help from The Hubs!

We alternated scrubbing the burnt on mess for probably almost 30 minutes until it was finally clean again.  And while I was finishing up, I started thinking...

How often in my own life do I have some sort of caked on mess that I push aside to avoid dealing with? 

And the reality is that happens probably a lot more than I really care to admit.  But eventually you know you have to get around to dealing with it...Or, you keep pushing it off, but then you burn everything else you set to cook in the pan of your life.

I've done that too.

I was thinking as I scrubbed that pan until it shone this morning about how God will scrub us sometimes to set us clean again.  And a few verses came to mind....

Psalm 51:10 - Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 

Or how about... Phillipians 1:6 - "that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

Both encouraging.  And I was thinking about the promise of creating something clean...and completing a good work.  But I was also reminded that cleaning off some nasty stuck on goo isn't always a pretty or painless process.  

The goo got there because I let it happen.  

I didn't stir the onions as frequently as I should have because I was busy doing other things at the same time.  Or maybe I didn't forgive someone when I should have because that just wasn't something I was up to doing that day.  Or maybe I let too much time pass after an argument with my husband....or didn't show grace to my kids when I knew that I should've.  Or maybe I put too much of my trust in people...and not in God. 

And thus, the goo builds up...

So today, I was thinking to myself... What goo in my life do I need to take a Brillo pad to in order to clean it up?  And when the Lord gently scrubs that goo, will I be angry at him for cleaning ever so gently? (Because still sometimes even when gentle, the Brillo can chafe.  But then again, it's that very action that gets it clean.)  Or can I keep my eyes on the God of the clean pan that I know I want my life to be in the end?  A pan that will make a great meal, or create a delicious sauce... a pan that delivers goodness when it's in use?

I'm pretty sure I know which kind of pan I want to be.  Do you?