I have a morning routine. Once I shower, next is always deodorant. Well, at least it’s supposed to be. I don’t even remember what distracted me, but one morning last week I veered out of my routine. We got into the car and were halfway to town when I asked myself if I had applied deodorant. In true Christy fashion, I stuck my fingers under my armpit, felt, then smelled.
Nothing.
At this point, many of you are snickering as you visualize me poking my hand into my shirt collar, under my armpit, then pulling it out, and sniffing it. I get it. I laugh at me too. This particular day was sure to be long and result in much stink, so I knew deodorant was a must.
Many of you know I’ve taken a part-time position with the Central School at a Math Interventionist, so as soon as I arrived on campus, I made a beeline for the nurse’s office. All they had was deodorant for men, but I didn’t care. Anti-stink was all I needed.
My youngest, Daniel, giggled all day thinking about me having to find deodorant in the nurse’s station. He’s laughed even more since I told him I’d keep it in my work bag just in case I forget again.
“I don’t even stink. Why do you need deodorant?” Daniel asked me.
“You may not think you stink, but others might think differently.”
That’s when it hit me: I may not think I stink, but what kind of smell am I leaving behind?
In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, verses 2:15-16 (ESV), he says, “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.”
Whether we put off an inviting smell or a putrid one, we are leaving a smell trail behind. Are we wearing our spiritual deodorant even when we forget our physical kind? Are we leaving a trail of love, warmth, encouragement, grace, mercy, and peace? Or are we making our mark by leaving anger, irritation, frustration, judgment, guilt, and shame?
Before you leave the house this week, check yourself for your spiritual (and physical) deodorant. We must not leave home without it.