God offers us Chanel but sometimes we opt for the cheapie, knock-off imitation scent.
You know those bathroom sprays that just make the stench smell worse, adding a heaviness to the gag-worthy aroma that permeates the whole house (evacuate! evacuate!)? In the same way, Christians who haven't fully accepted Christ are a bit on the nose. You can look good, you can talk the talk, but like our friend Pepe Le Pew, you have the potential to create major STINK. In theory and practise, a fully developed Christian should smell sweet, having cast off all those old hurts, habits and characteristics that make us reek (gossip, anger, unforgiveness, malice, criticism, bad habits, guilt, general ungodly conduct) and replacing them with spirit-filled perfume (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, gentleness, humility, faithfulness).
God offers us Chanel but sometimes we opt for the cheapie, knock-off imitation scents. What a waste of the master perfumer's offer. And how silly of us to settle for discounted impulse buys when the gift is essentially free. The "good fruits" of God's spirit are the free-gift-with-purchase you get when you accept Jesus Christ, and it has no expiry date.
My good friend, preacher, singer and author Aliki Flodine is a pretty good smelling Christian. As regular readers would know, my faith is progressing but I've still got a couple of cheapies on the dresser I need to toss out. Depending on your level of humility, respect, reverence and common sense, casting off your smells can be a painful or painless process. We will go through seasons when we're smelling a bit off and others when we smell particularly fruity, almost edible.
The absolute KEY to doing this is first recognising that GOD LOVES YOU. When you fully accept this, with every ounce of your being, you will want to wear your very best outfit and best perfume EVERY DAY and it will make you feel happy, secure, worthy and confident. People will be, like, 'Hey, you smell good! What are you wearing?'. You will no longer pong.
Sometimes you will forget to put on your perfume as you race out of the house; on those days, you might smell a little less pleasant. Other days, even when you wear your best perfume, people might react negatively: "You stink!" or "This other person smells better than you". But when you wrap yourself in the scent of his love and acceptance, God will still smell you and say, "Mmmmm, nice". When you fully accept that Christ lives within you, you emanate the sweetest fragrance known to him, and his is the finest nose in the world.
Christ's love trumps Chanel No.5 everyday. There's no more satisfying (en)counter experience than this one.
Girl With a Satchel
2 comments:
Love this post... thanks. I think you smell pretty awesome.
Thankfully God doesn't react negatively to any smell - even if we think they are worth tossing out... or i would have been chucked out long ago!
Have a blessed day!!
True, Mezbee! I think out stinks offend others more than God, though he must be mystified as to why we would choose to be smelly and not lovely... and, yah, no one gets chucked from the club because they wore the wrong thing... unlike in Grade Seven when CK One was all the rage at my school.
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