My Pan Is Scratched And Old

The handle moves.

Not badly. It does not come off. But it has a small amount of play in it that was not there once, and you notice it every single time, and it has become the reason.

The base is marked. The coating went years ago in the middle and there is a ring where things stick now, and the outside has that permanent brown that no amount of scrubbing takes off and that you stopped scrubbing at about the same time you stopped cooking.

It came from a house you do not live in any more. That is part of it too.

And when you think about making something, that pan is what you would have to use, and the thought of using it sits somewhere between embarrassing and defeating, and the thought goes away, and you eat something else.

So let me say the first thing plainly, before anything practical.

Nothing in this article is going to suggest you replace it.

Not a better one, not a cheap one, not one that would only cost a little. That pan is what this evening happens in, and the article is not going to solve a feeling by spending money, because the feeling is not about the pan.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels

There is a line in Second Corinthians about containers, and the container is deliberately unimpressive.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. (2 Corinthians 4:7, King James Version)

Treasure in earthen vessels.

An earthen vessel is a clay pot. Cheap, ordinary, chipped at the rim within a week, the kind of thing that was replaced constantly and never valued. That is the container chosen, and it is chosen on purpose.

And the purpose is stated right there: that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. The plainness of the vessel is not a problem being worked around. It is doing a job.

You are holding an ordinary vessel rather than an inadequate one, and a container that looks used has never once been the wrong container. Second Corinthians 4:7 puts something valuable inside cheap clay on purpose, and the Holy Spirit is the one present with a woman looking at a marked pan and deciding against it.

And notice the word treasure has not moved anywhere.

The vessel being plain does not reduce what is in it. Nobody in that sentence suggests the contents would be better in something finer, and nobody suggests waiting for a better vessel before filling this one.

Which is worth borrowing tonight, because the meal is the treasure and the pan is the clay, and those two have got confused.

You have the meal and the pan filed as the same thing, and a marked base has never once changed what came out of it. The Spirit of God is the one with somebody who has been judging dinner by its cookware, and Second Corinthians 4:7 keeps the treasure entirely intact inside the ordinary container.

The pan is not the reason, it is the sentence

Here is the practical half, and it is one correction. That pan is not stopping you cooking. It is giving you something true to say about the fact that you do not.

Watch the shape of it. The handle does have play in it. The coating did go. Every fact in the case is accurate, which is precisely what makes it such a good reason, because a reason made of true things is very hard to argue with.

But a loose handle stops nobody from making eggs. It is not a broken pan. It is a pan that is used, and the used is what the sentence is really about.

And here is the second half, which is the one that stings slightly. It came from a house you do not live in any more. Which means that every time it comes out, it comes out carrying something, and the reluctance in your hand is not about coating. Nobody is asking you to make peace with that tonight. You can cook in a pan that has history in it without having settled the history first.

You were reading a reluctance about a house as a fact about a pan, and a thing that carries something has never once stopped being usable. Second Corinthians 4:7 chooses the plain container deliberately rather than apologetically, and the Holy Spirit is the one with a woman holding something that came from somewhere else.

And here is what is actually true about that pan, practically.

It heats. That is the requirement. The ring where things stick is handled by more fat and less hurry. The loose handle is handled by holding the pan and not swinging it. Neither of those is skill and neither of those is money.

You have a working pan rather than a broken one, and a surface that needs a little more care has never once been the same thing as a surface that cannot be used. The Spirit of God is the one in that kitchen with a pan that still gets hot, and Second Corinthians 4:7 makes the plainness of the vessel part of the point.

What tonight is, in that pan

So here is the assignment. Cook one thing in that old pan tonight, and eat it sitting down.

Tonight. One thing. That pan, the marked one, the one with the handle. Keep it plain: eggs with something in them. Rice with an egg on it. Pasta with butter and cheese. Use a little more fat than feels necessary and go slower than feels necessary, and do not go out and get anything.

It may not be good. That is expected, and it is information about a first attempt rather than about the pan, and the pan is not on trial tonight.

You are using what is in that cupboard rather than waiting for better, and a pan with a history in it has never once cooked a lesser meal. Second Corinthians 4:7 puts the treasure in the clay without hesitating, and the Holy Spirit is the one at that stove with somebody who got the old one down.

Then the second half, which is the one that does the work. Eat it sitting down, at a table, on a plate, not standing at the counter. And then wash that pan and put it back where it lives, dry, the way somebody does with a thing they intend to use again. The putting back matters as much as the cooking, because a pan washed and put away properly is a pan that has been kept rather than tolerated.

You are keeping it rather than tolerating it, and a pan somebody looks after has never once been the wrong pan to own. The Spirit of God is the one at that sink with somebody drying a handle, and Second Corinthians 4:7 has the ordinary vessel chosen on purpose.