What Is Your Aroma?
What Is Your Aroma?
The minute a person enters a room; people can usually smell the aroma they carry in their being without a word or previously knowing them. Some spread more than the scent of the expensive perfume they wear, the odor of arrogance or pride over their achievements. Others have a fragrance of timidity, feeling out of place and rejected before anyone utters a word. There are those family members or friends when they reach out, we immediately feel bombarded by the pungent smell of their needs, problems, emergencies, or desires not to seek advice or a listening ear, but blind loyalty and biased approval. A few relatives carry the scent of bad news, as when they call, it is either regarding illness, misfortune, or death.
Some loved ones leave us guarded because of the unpleasant and incessant whiff of jealousy, envy, greed, victimhood, or criticism they emit with every encounter. It seems like the smell of desperation, coupled with resentment, masked itself as honest opinion and free speech. The truth we detect in the air is their verbal assault and passive aggressiveness so settled into their character; over time, it became as potent as embalming chemicals. Even though we may no longer entertain or give credence to them, these folks naturally gravitate toward platforms that allow them to openly ventilate their irritating fumes even when they do so covertly.
There is nothing like the stench of a keyboard warrior, yet every day one tries to surpass the other with their negative comments and imaginary stories that stink to high heaven. Social media reeks of superficiality, impatience, need for recognition, fanaticism, and herd mentality. But social media is this kingdom named cancel culture. In this kingdom, influencers rule as royals, although for most of them their greatest expertise is the Febreze effect, neutralizing the unbearable funk while it continues to rot undetected.
My question to you today is: What is your aroma? I decided long ago to release nothing but the sweet and pleasant aroma of God. Daily, I work at it as a perfumer in a lab, extracting the essential oil of the Holy Spirit, filtering my emotions through it, and allowing it to distill my humanity. I will work at it until the incense escaping out of my being is fit to be in God’s presence, the smoke coming out of His holy mountain.
Let it be so!
