I've Lost my Scents

Yes, it's true! I've rung in the New Year by losing all my scents....and no, I did not make a spelling error! My sense of scent and taste have gone packing for a few days...actually since New Year's Eve. I have such a severe cold that not even a crockpot full of sauerkraut and Kielbasa on New Year's Day could penetrate my poor stuffed up nose. Maybe that's not such a bad thing? Well, anyway, this would probably be a great time to lose a few pounds, since I can't really taste anything anyway. Why eat? I miss these two senses very much. And it's made me think of many things....all I take for granted, all I am truly dependent on the Lord for....the list goes on.

I knew a lady once who had been sick and never regained her sense of taste (or smell, I guess). I felt so sorry for her. Think of all the ways these two senses serve us. Just in safety alone...if we smell something burning, if we smell a poisonous leak of gas, if we smell a dirty diaper...you get the picture. Then there's the food category...smelling "bad" food and quickly disposing of it, smelling good food that tantalizes our appetite. Smelling our... selves...in case we're in need of some refreshing scents or a breath mint! Yes, God has definitely enriched our lives with the senses He gave.

But there is something bigger at stake with our desire to taste and enjoy or to smell and be warned of danger. You know what I'm getting at, don't you? "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good." Our desire to taste of the Lord is truly a gift. If we truly are depraved, which we are, then we don't even have the ability to want God on our own. He must give us the "taste" for Him that we so desperately need. Our Christmas Musical touched on this just weeks ago....that we need to be "salty" to give lost people a little "flavor for the Lord." God opens up our spiritual olfactory lobe (ok biology people, give me feedback) to allow us to desire, or have an appetite for him. In just a few days I've noticed how little appetite I have since I can't smell anything. I almost feel blocked inside my own little world. All these people around me are hungry and eating and enjoying food...and I just can't participate like them because my two senses are blocked off. This is what's happening all around us, friends! Lost people are seeing us align our lives around something they don't yet have a taste for--God, His Word, and His people. Oh, that God would now open our eyes too, that we might ask Him to use us to help awaken an appetite for God's truth in lost people!

So this year, be thankful for your senses...both your physical senses and your spiritual...especially your spiritual. Thank God for awakening you to Him and giving you eyes to see, ears to hear, a mouth to taste of Him, hands to grip Him and reach out to others. Pray that God would use you to give others a taste for Him. Ask God to help you live in such a way that He would be seen as the supremely desirable person that He is. And live humbly before Him, that He might show grace to you as you seek Him more fully.

I'll keep you posted as to when my "scents" return!