Friday, July 25, 2014

Aromatic or Smelly?

What is your favorite smell?  Freshly ground coffee?  A home filled with the smell of chocolate chips cookies?  A walk through a pine forest?  A particular flower?

My life coach was telling me about a conversation he had when he met a fellow believer.  They had been talking a bit when the man commented, "You smell like Jesus."  In II Corinthians 2:14-16 we read "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ, and through us spreads everywhere the fragance of the knowledge of him.  For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.  To the one we are the smell of death, to the other we are the fragrance of life.  And who is equal to the task?"

It got me thinking...how do we move through our day spreading everywhere the frangrance of Christ?  And how can we tell if we smell like Jesus?  And, what will be the impact of smelling like Jesus?

It dawns on me that:
1.  Smells permeate an environment.  Once let loose you can't contain it.
2.  Smells trigger a sensory response...it can make us hungry, in fact smells will make our mouths water, or they can make us vomit.
3.  Smells can trigger a memory.  Have you had it happen where a smell transported you back to another time and place in your memory?  There is a smell to August that brings me to the farm lanes of my childhood.
4.  Smells can draw us to them, or repel us away.

I'm picturing a Charlie Brown comic strip and seeing Linus with his cloud of dust and dirt following him.  If someone were to draw our cloud, following us what would it smell like to God and others?  How close will people want to get?  And how can I make sure that I am spreading the fragrance Christ calls me to spread.  Sometimes I fear I am doing the "right things" but my attitude doesn't smell much like Jesus.

Remember too that for those who don't know Jesus...yet, we may not be so appealing, but perhaps our fragrance of Christ will permeate their world and linger long enough to begin to change their perceptions of Christ-followers and the Christ we serve.  Maybe the next person you meet will be a pre-believer and because the Spirit is at work our aroma will be one more tool the Spirit uses to touch them.

We better be sure we are authentic Christ-followers, because a phony can be smelly in a hurry.  We better be checking our attitude as we walk out the door, or greet those coming in, as we don't want our fragrance to be tainted by our self-will and sinfulness.

So, my friends, Go forth and smell like Jesus wherever you go. I pray the Holy Spirit will continually permeate your world with the sweet frangrance of grace in Christ Jesus.

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