You Have To Be Pretty Stinky To Smell Yourself

This summer I tried riding my bike to work as weather permitted. It is a nice ride and helps to clear my mind and ready me for a day at work.

The 10 minute ride is primarily down some side streets. That way I avoid the traffic (and potholes) on the main roads. Usually there are a few joggers and occasional dog-walkers, but for the most part it is a quiet ride. This gives me time for some good conversation with God.

I like riding the bike, but a hindrance for me is that I don't want to walk around work all day sweaty. Being overweight, even on cool days I arrive with my collar, back and underarms fairly damp.

Now I am one of those fortunate people who usually has minimal body odor. If needed, I can go a few days without a shower and no one knows the difference (so long as I wash my hair). About the only time I really smell is when I get really odoriferous is from activities like from mowing the lawn. playing softball or walking for exercise (or chasing the kids around an amusement park).

So, a concern for me is not the wetness, but the smell. That I will be at work all day, sitting in meetings, interacting with co-workers, and being smelly. Having worked with people with disabilities for most my life, I know that body odor can be disruptive and an unpleasant addition to the day.

See, part of the situation is that most people cannot smell themselves. We get used to smells pretty quickly. I worked in a steel mill for a few years and the air of sulfur awful walking in but within a few minutes, it was not even noticeable.

For me, I have to stink pretty bad for me to smell myself.

This is probably true for most people, though I have never taken a pole.

That is how our own sins are as well. We have to really get deep into sin sometimes before we can really see our sinfulness.

Most people see themselves, in balance, as pretty good. Sure, we do the occasion lying or minor stealing (how many pens from work are sitting in a drawer at home?) and lusting (in our heart). Yes, we worship some idols like money or our girlfriend or our sexuality. True, we covet the job we didn't get (and was given to someone so much less able to do it than our self) or the neighbors BMW. . . and when was the last time we called our mom or dad?

Well, doing the above broke a whole number of commandments, but we see them as minor and unimportant. We didn't kill anyone (accept in our hearts) or hurt others on purpose.

No, we have trouble smelling ourselves because we have become used to the stench. We say, "well, don't smell too bad" or we slap on some more perfume or deodorant to cover up our smell, just like we try to cover up our sins. This usually makes the smell more nauseous and makes our sins worse.

The best thing to do is to realize you need to realize that it is easy to get used to the smell, like it is easy to get used to the sins.

Christians should be looking for sins in themselves. We need to take a moment and smell the air. Is that wafting odor ourselves?

Just like we need to shower regularly to deal with the odor from our body, we need to take some hard looks and go to God to deal with the regular sins in our lives.

No one likes to sit next to a stinky body, including God.