Pillars of Smoke

On a street in an older part of a city, a couple decided their house needed a new look. Having little experience with renovating themselves, they saved their pennies and then eagerly flipped through the yellow pages until they found a renovating company that they could afford.

Their excitement grew when large trucks pulled up to their house. The renovation would take a few weeks, but the couple was willing to wait and anticipated their house looking new and modern.

One afternoon when the couple was away several men were working on tearing up flooring. One of the men, getting sick of the dusty work, announced to his co-worker he needed to step out for a smoke.

A few minutes later her was loitering the front of the house.

He threw his cigarette butt on the ground and went to return to his work.

He failed to step on the remains of the cigarette.

A spark started some scrap on fire. The little flame steadily grew, and then reached the front deck. The rest happened like dominoes, until the house was engulfed in violent flames.

The two men rushed outside, coughing through the smoke and staring at the pillars of thick blackness tunneling their way into the sky.

Imagine being that worker. Imagine staring at those pillars of smoke. Imagine feeling the heat from the fire. Imagine knowing you'd just made one of the simplest but biggest mistakes ever.

Imagine thinking about all those pillars of smoke meant. Imagine knowing everyhting you've just ruined.

You've ruined your life. You know you'll be fired for this mistake.

You've ruined your family's lives. They need your income to eat, to survive. Who will put bread on the able now?

You've ruined your boss' life. How can he ever get customers if his company starts home fires?

You've ruined the couples' lives. They were relying on you, and now their home, no doubt filled with precious objects of great sentiment, was lost in those pillars of smoke.

Imagine knowing you've ruined everything. That's what those pillars of smoke meant - that you've ruined absolutely everything.

Let's face it: we've all seen those pillars of smoke to one degree or another. We've all made a mistake that not only effected us, but also made life miserable for those we love and those who are relying on us. When we get caught in this situation, guilt gnaws away at us deep down. We feel terrible about everything, and no matter how we try to justify our actions, our conscience has issued us to a living death sentence.

We feel the eyes of everyone around us accusing us, unwilling to forgive. The last thing we want is another set of those accusing eyes. The last thing we want is someone else to complain about how horrible we've made life for them.

The last place we want to be is in God's presence.

We think God will be another set of condemning eyes. We think he's ready to whip out the rule book and slam us in the face. So we avoid God, crawling in our own guilt while the voices in our mind slowly eat away at our hearts.

But God's presence is exactly the place we need to be. Although God is a God of justice, he is also a God of grace. He doesn't want us to live in the misery of guilt. God doesn't intend for us to hate the life that he's given to us. God wants to set us free from the guilt that enslaves us.

When we enter God's presence, truly sorry for our actions, he'll forgive us. And once he's forgiven us, he sees us as blameless. There's no strings attached. He's willing to take upon himself the guilt of our mistakes. We don't have to carry it around as a burden. We still have consequences from the people around us, but they are much easier to deal with once the accusing voices in our mind have been wiped away.

God doesn't enslave us to guilt. God sets us free from guilt. Whenever we're staring in those pillars of smoke, thinking about how we've ruined everything, we need to remember that we need to go to God. We need to let him set us free from guilt.

Pillars of smoke can set our lives on fire, but God can dose those flames in his mercy.