the stench of a rotting corpse

Smells are amazing . . . they can bring back memories from many years in the past. Or they can make a moment most pleasant (see previous blog about the smell of heaven). Or if you have ever lived in some hairy arm-pit sort of place around the world, you certainly know that smells can be utterly awful.

So I found it facinating this morning to read that apparently to non-praying folks -- those headed toward destruction, find our "smell" to be like that of a rotting corpse! Now that is some serious bad smelling. Before I got married some 20 years ago, I drove an ambulance and in the course of that difficult job, received the opportunity to smell a rotting corpse. There is nothing, and I repeat nothing, that is quite as bad a smell as a decomposing human body.

In the same text, it is written that to those who are on the path of salvation in some fashion, we are an "exquisite fragrance" and it occured to me that the same thing is the stench of a rotting corpse and an exquisite frangrance all at the same time! This is a bit confusing, but the most facinating thing is that this entire discussion about smells is written in the context of hearing from God and communicating what we are told. It says, "This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No--but at least we don't take God's Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ's presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can." (2. Cor. 2:16-17 The Message)

It seems that when I communicate the words of God, that these fragrances are released! I wonder what smell I am? At first glance I thought the receptivity of the message by the receiver (hearer) determined the odor, and there is an element of that here . . . but in the end, it seems much more that when I clearly really hear from God and communicate that well, or not (the hearing or the communicating), that the resulting praxis determines the odor. I wonder what smell I am?