Stench

I am very slowly getting over a cold that has stolen my sense of smell for almost the last week.  I didn't really miss smells because the most prevalent smell in our home is a repercussion of the weird food our dog has to eat.

Unfortunately, my sense of smell is returning and I too now groan when the dog lets one rip.

Or when someone starts the stove.  Or when Dad gargles and then gives me a hug.  Or when my sister uses too much perfume.

Suddenly every smell is suffocating.  Anything with a scent makes me gag.

Isn't that life with the Holy Spirit?  Sometimes you don't realize what you're missing until you have it.  And then once the Holy Spirit begins to change your life, everything you once did makes you gag.

Of course, eventually smells will go back to being a normal part of my day (I can't wait!) and not overwhelming.

As we continue our faith journey, we grow more content with whatever our "normal" has become.  Those things that once repulsed us are accepted now.  We blaze through things that once made us pause and reflect.

Stop!  Pay attention to what you're doing! 

Breathe in the beautiful scent of life and exhale the rancid stench of sin.

<>< Katie

Healed By His Wounds

Last week I got unjustifiably angry at my close friend "Keely."  It was silly really.  It all boiled down to me being jealous... and hurt.

Something happened in the living room and instead of addressing it like an adult, I pouted in my room and text-vented to Amber.  I got so worked up that I was crying.  Silently.  Even in the same room, my roommate was unaware that I was having one of the most intense text conversations of my life.

For the next several days I held a grudge against Keely.  That's when the suitemates began to notice. 
"You've been extra sensitive lately, Katie."
"Katie and Keely have to sit on opposite sides of the room because they might rip off each others' head."

The two of us agreed to tone down our playful sassing for awhile and make sure we're showing love.  Through carefully planned words (and some not-so-carefully planned ones) I acknowledged why I had been so sensitive.  When it all boiled down to it, my anger had nothing to do with Keely.  Yet she had been the recipient of my frustration, jealousy, and anger.

She accepted my apology, which she said was unnecessary.  She hadn't considered my feelings about the situation.  We both decided to be more careful and move forward.

I got to take communion this week (a rare event in Baptist Country).  In confessing my sin to my Lord, the first situation that popped into my head was the situation with Keely.  I again asked for forgiveness and for those hurt feelings to be removed.  I wanted to be healed of the whole situation.

I almost cried again when Keely served me the bread.
"Body of Christ, given for you."

Forgiveness.  Given to me. 

"But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5 (emphasis mine)

Be healed in His wounds today, friends.
 
<>< Katie

Forgiven

Last night, seventeen of us went out to dinner. Of course, with a group that size you need four cars, and somehow I ended up in the Deep Theological Conversation Car. I should have guess that by noticing the four men in the jeep with me, but I didn't mind.

"Ok, what kind of cool thoughts has anyone had about God lately? Let's start there," Keith said nonchalantly.

For the next hour or so we discussed forgiveness. One of the many conclusions we finally drew was that forgiveness is more for the forgiving than the forgiven. Forgiveness also doesn't mean what the other person did was right. Forgiveness does not make the sin acceptable. Rather, forgiveness is admitting, "Yes, what you did was wrong, but I've decided to put in the the past and move on. I wish you well."

This conclusion became important at dinner. Trey tried to throw an empty sugar wrapper at Matthew and missed, hitting me in the face. Me getting hit in the face is actually incredibly common. I narrowly avoided being hit in the head with a bowling ball tonight. I'm actually kind f sad it didn't hit me because that may be the only sports ball that has never collided with my face at some point in my life. Sometimes I really wonder if there is a magnetic field connecting my nose to anything being thrown.

Through laughter and tears, I told Trey I forgave him. I wasn't saying hitting me in the face was ok, but I was willing to move past it and be friends with Trey again. I wish Trey well.


While I was home for break, our church service times changed and no one bothered to tell the college students. Of course, we all showed up this morning and realized there was 45 minutes before the service started. Emily figured Matt told us. Matt thought we were on the email list. Really, it came down to John who completely forgot to mention it to us.

"I'll forgive Emily and Matt; it wasn't their responsibility. But I won't forgive John," Amber said, kind of in jest. "Ok, I'll forgive him, but not until after I tease him for it."

One of the things we pondered last night: is it ok to tell someone you forgive them if they don't know they wronged you? We concluded: no, you're shoving it in their face. Your sole motive is to hurt them back. That's wrong.

John came over and apologized. We teased about it for awhile. And then expressed forgiveness. We admitted what John did (or didn't do) was wrong, but opted to move on and wish him well instead of holding a grudge against John. After all, what had it hurt us? We lost forty-five minutes of precious sleep but that's it. No real harm done. Yes, Kevin, no real harm done; it was only 45 minutes.

Find it within you to forgive someone today. That doesn't make what he/she did right. It makes you willing to move on and wish that person well.

<>< Katie

Spider Web Sin

Both of these ideas are my Sunday School teacher Matt's, but they really stuck with me so I want to share them.

Have you ever walked through a spider web? What is your immediate reaction? Get the spider web off of you, right? What if we reacted to sin the same way we react to spider webs? What if the instant we sinned we tried to rid ourselves of it?

Are you kidding me?

"You have a LOT of white socks," Megan said walking into my room late last night. She chastised me about doing laundry on a Saturday night (I didn't tell her that I labeled the bones on all of the skeletons in the building on Friday night...) and teased me about my plethora of white socks. She and her friend were on rounds and they were excited to actually see hints of life on my hall (my door being open was it...). That was our conversation: white socks and dead hall. They then left me to ponder my socks and PAH!

I remember when I was really little, I was sorting socks for my mom and commented that my dad had a lot of black socks. She told me he he pretty much only wears black sock. I remembering thinking that was nuts and could not understand how anyone could only wear one color of socks.

Well, friends, the tables turned a few years after that and since I was like eight, I've only worn white socks. I will admit, I spend more time musing about socks than any sane person should (I have home socks and college socks and they're all white, it's that bad), but it wasn't until last night when I was talking to Megan that I realized something important regarding white socks.

As the hymn says, "Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow." Jesus washed away our sins just like He washed the feet of the disciples in John 13. I was a member of the black foot tribe, but He washed my feet clean and now they're white.

And that is why I wear white socks. In case you were ever wondering.

In Christ
<>< Katie

"Jesus answered, 'A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.'" John 13:10

Letting Go

I read Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls in 4th grade. I don't remember much from that book but part of it has stuck with me and I don't really know why. From time to time I think about the one scene I remember and today was one of those days. I was reading Breaking Free by Beth Moore and all of the sudden there I was thinking about a scene in a book I read nine years ago.

The protagonist (see, I don't even remember his name) was "'coon hunting" with pieces of something shiny. Anything shiny was put in a trap and a raccoon would come by and stick his (or her, I guess) paw into the trap to grab the shiny object. The problem was that once their paw was in around the shiny object in a fist, it was impossible to get it out of the trap again. If the raccoon would open their paw and let of of shiny object their paw would easily come out of the trap, but the raccoon was too selfish to let go and would rather die.

In the same way, we grab onto sin. God tells us all we have to do is let go and we can be free. If only it were that easy! So, here we stand with our wrists caught in raccoon traps with our fingers curled around sin and Jesus standing beside us telling us to let go. We're too selfish to listen to Him and would rather hang onto the shiny sin.

Let go of the shiny sin. Grab God's hand instead. I know, it's hard. But it's worth it!

<>< Katie

"He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, 'Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?'" Isaiah 44:20