07 Jul Holy Smoke by Gina Cameneti
How’s this for embarrassing? A blaring firetruck showed up in front of my house accompanied by a squad car for the 2nd time that day. Is it because there was a serious fire? No. It was because I kept setting off the smoke detectors with my holiday cooking gone bad. Not ok! I was tempted to disconnect those smoke detectors, but…………well…………..not ok either.
Our emotions can be like those smoke detectors. Sometimes when they are ‘set-off,’ we drive everyone around us crazy; putting them on constant alert! On the other hand, sometimes we are tempted to disconnect from our emotions, and numb them out, (think binge watching, binge eating, or binge anything else).
When the smoke of life set off King David’s emotions, he turned it into holy smoke! He brought his distress to God. Once when he was stuck in a dank, dark cave, hiding from King Saul, this is what he wrote:
Psalm 142: 1 I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. 2 I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble. 3 When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way.
We can turn the smoke in our lives into “holy smoke” too! We can see our emotions as a gift from God; smoke detectors that sound off and let us know that there’s a problem in the ‘house.’ We can use them as a signal to look into the situation with God, and get His perspective and wisdom. With His help we can replace fear with trust, anger with forgiveness, and anxiety with peace.
How do you handle it when you’re emotions start to sound off? I don’t know about you, but I can sure do better! Let’s make a deal with ourselves to run directly to God and turn the smoke in our lives into “holy smoke!”