You Smell

Sunday 2/9/20 5:44 AM

Before I left for my walk this morning I checked the weather app on my phone. There is a chance of rain today and I wanted to know if it was going to start before I could finish my walk. The app showed the first possibility of rain at 9:00, so I left for my walk. About fifteen minutes into the walk I could smell rain in the air. Sometimes you can smell the rain before it begins and I began to silently curse the app on my phone for giving me misleading information. But the smell of rain soon ceased, and it remained dry. I started to think about how one can smell the rain before it comes and I wished I could do the same thing with the movement of God in my life. It would be nice if I could use one of my senses to determine what God wants me to do, or to determine when he is about to work in or through me.

I continued walking and about ten minutes later I walked past the water feature near city hall. As I went past I could smell chlorine emanating from the cascading water. I immediately had memories of my childhood. We had friends with swimming pools when I lived in Phoenix. During the hot summer days I spent many hours at their house enjoying the refreshing water. Sometimes my friend’s parents had added chlorine to the water and, if you swam shortly after they did that, your eyes and the lining of your nose would burn. When I got out of the pool my eyes would be red and the mucus membranes of my nose irritated.

I kept walking and a few minutes later 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 came to my mind. “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life.” I thought about the two aromas I experienced during my walk, the aroma of rain, which brings refreshment and life, and the aroma of chlorine, a poisonous gas that kills microorganisms in the water and also people and animals when exposed to larger doses.

For the rest of my walk I wondered what kind of aroma I exude to those I meet. Am I someone that brings refreshment and life to those with whom I interact or do I cause irritation or discomfort? After my walk I sat down for my regular time of meditation and reflection. The first passage of scripture assigned for my reading today was Isaiah 58:9-12, “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called the Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.” The image of a well-watered garden and a spring that never fails reminded me of the promise of rain later today. I want to be the person described by Isaiah, one who repairs and restores. The instructions for how to be that person are pretty clear. I need to strive to be one who fights to get rid of oppression and malicious talk, and to expend my energy and resources in behalf of the hungry and the oppressed.

I am always exuding an aroma. Today I have a choice in the way I live and interact with others. Will others smell the aroma that brings life, or the aroma that brings death?