How do you smell?

This morning we heard a convicting sermon on these verses:

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?
~2 Corinthians 2:14-16

 The gist of the message was that if we belong to Christ, we smell like Him to others: if they love Christ, itis a sweet fragrance, and if they don't, it is the stench of death.  And if we don't smell of Christ to others, then we need to question if we belong to Him.

Perhaps one reason the message was so moving this morning is that it came from the lips of a man who has served God in costly ways for many years: first, abroad in places like Columbia and Ecquador, and now as a chaplain in a maximum security prison for the criminally insane, and for a regional hospice program.  You know how stressful the prison job is when you hear that he took on the hospice chaplaincy to have a break from the stress. Here is a man who knows what it means to smell like Jesus.

Of course, these verses end with a question: who is equal to such a task? The implied answer is, of course, none of us.  Not you, Gentle Reader, not me, not my amazing friend who did the preaching this morning.  It is only Christ Himself who is equal to such a task.  And so I find myself thankful, indeed, that He leads us always in victory. May you rejoice in the same, Gentle Friend!