A Funny Thing . . . Pastor as Fireman

So yesterday as everyone was clearing out of the church building and I was getting ready to run off to a Christian school fundraising dinner I stepped into my office. It smelled like someone had been smoking a cigarette in there. Odder things have happened, I suppose. Nobody was there, I took care of a couple of things and stepped away to deal with some of the other building close-up details. Dropped into the office again to pick up my things and it smelled stronger. Since I don't smoke cigarettes it was a mystery. I looked around in case anything was catching fire in the office. No signs of trouble. When I left the building I found smoke pouring out of an ash tray, one of those things that looks kind of like a tower. Lots of smoke pouring out of it. I pulled the top off and dumped the contents onto the pavement, figuring they would go out in a moment. But cigarettes aren't like pipes or cigars, which do go out quite quickly when left to themselves. After a bit of trying to stamp out the activity I finally got a bucket of water and doused it. Thankfully we have a church building today. And it doesn't even smell like cigarettes!