JUST MY THOUGHTS

SMELL LIKE JESUS!

After listening to President Corey’s message and thinking about the powerful sense of smell, I joked with the seniors that we should all get bumper stickers with that memorable short sentence: Smell like Jesus. It may not be a best-selling bumper sticker, but it is a great motto to send out with our seniors and to challenge ourselves to every single day, “Go out and smell like Jesus!”

The seniors and I ended our semester together by listening to a chapel message delivered online by the president of Biola University, Barry Corey. President Corey is the author of a book that I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend: Love Kindness: Discover the Power of a Forgotten Christian Virtue. His chapel message highlighted some of the book’s main ideas as well. The book and his chapel message offer many great ways to share the love of Jesus with a world that desperately needs Him. At one point in his message, Corey urged his listeners, “Smell like Jesus!”

That caught my attention because the sense of smell is powerful. I remember reading an article that explained how a newborn infant’s senses are only partially developed at birth. Their sense of sight doesn’t gain precision for a few months, but the article explained that a newborn’s sense of smell is quite keen; it is often how a baby identifies his or her mother. That explains how a screaming baby sometimes settles down when the baby’s mom nestles that little one on her shoulder, near her neck; the baby immediately “recognizes” mom by her familiar smell.

My own sense of smell gets a fantastic workout most mornings when I first open the door into Western: I can often predict what is on the menu for the day just by inhaling those appetizing aromas. In addition to that, we can quite naturally absorb aromas just by being around them. They become a part of our clothes, our hair, and even our skin. Sometimes when I prepare certain foods for my family--like pancakes and bacon for breakfast or tacos for supper, I wonder if I should change my clothes because it’s possible that everyone I encounter after enjoying that meal can guess what we ate simply because of the lingering aroma that remains. I am guessing we have all come in after a bonfire and “shared” the smoky smell with every other item in our hamper when we throw those clothes in for the night!

Smells are powerful. The Bible perfectly understands that. 2 Corinthians 2:15-17, “God considers us to be the pleasing smell that Christ is spreading. He is spreading it among people who are being saved and people who are dying. To those who are dying, we are the smell of death. To those who are being saved, we are the perfume of life.”

Smelling like Jesus isn’t complex–it’s a lot like cooking bacon or sitting by a campfire–being around the source of the smell will naturally (and powerfully) become a part of us. People who spend time with Jesus will be noticeable to others. It isn’t something we have to hope for or wonder about. It will happen. Time spent with Him will “rub off” on us. And that is precisely the way God intends that to be! After we’ve spent time with Christ, people will know. To those who are committed or even curious about Him, our aroma will be inviting–the perfume of life. To those who fight Christ and want to undermine what Christ stands for, we will be repulsive–the smell of death.

It’s not up to us how people respond–let’s leave that up to God. It is up to us to spend time with Jesus. So, let’s spend time with Him. Let’s let His holy aroma sink deeply into every part of who we are. Let’s fill the world with the smell of our Savior–the wonderful, life-giving aroma of Jesus Christ.

Seniors and all Christ-followers, Let’s go out and smell like Jesus!

Just my thoughts, KC