Have you ever cleaned an oven? I haven't. But I know they get pretty filthy with burnt gunk and the drippings of... Well, whatever is baked in them. It makes me wonder about refining fire. What goes in is dirty; what comes out is clean and pure. I'm assuming the impurities are caught in some sort of receptacle and dumped in a landfill somewhere (you know, to leak through plastic lining and pollute the earth). The junk doesn't just disappear, right?

I'm trying to understand God's refining fire. He purges us of our uncleanness—does the uncleanness disappear, or is it caught somewhere? I wonder if we can grab at the impurities and just hold onto them. "Thanks for helping me deal with lust, God. Instead of throwing it away like You want me to, I'll hold onto it for a rainy day." Maybe, maybe we can even throw it away temporarily, then run back to the landfill, digging through trash to find it or a more enjoyable/filthy piece of, well, crap.

But through God, all things are possible. I think if we let Him, God can make our impurities disappear, forever. I'm not sure how—if I were, I'd be God!—but I'm pretty sure He can do it. Which is probably better than trying to bury it, when it can leak into other people's lives and do them harm.