February 13, 2004

No doubt this Valentine’s Day will be a prime occasion for television networks to run Pepé Le Pew marathons.  Pepé Le Pew is the amorous skunk with the habit of confusing hapless lady black cats with female skunks.  He definitely knew how to make the ladies’ heads turn… turn for the nearest escape route!

No matter how smooth the moves of this sweet talking French polecat, the objects of his affection wanted only to get away.  No matter how en vogue his fashion, no matter how dramatic his flair, this stinker was still a stinker.  Eyes watered, people fainted, and gas masks were issued.

            What a great picture portraying our attempts to win God over with our promises and attempts to be spiritually stylish.  “God, I’ll do this if you’ll do that.”  “God, I put more in the offering plate than the people in the seat next to me.  That should count for something.”  “God, I’m praying a lot out loud and I use lots of flowery words in those prayers… I must be doing a good job, huh?”

            Well-l-l, it’s not that DOING things for God is wrong… it’s not that GIVING sacrificially to Him through the Church is a bad thing… it’s not even that we’re PRAYING a lot or praying with lots of creative words and phrases.  On the contrary, these can all be WONDERFUL!

            It’s just that if these things are coming from a heart that is insincere in a true devotion to God, our “doing”, “giving” and “praying” don’t mean ANYTHING.  In fact, those things can… hmm… (how can I say it?)… they can carry a “less than appealing aroma” in the “nostrils of God”.

If our worship, individual or collective, is characterized by apathy, false motives, or anything else than a true desire to worship Him, than His attitude is such that He would say what He said through the prophet Amos, “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.  Even though you bring Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.  Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them.  Away with the noise of your songs!  I will not listen to the music of your harps.  But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:21-24).

            Could it be that when we sometimes try to “grab hold of God” that a stink precedes us?  A stink of something that He won’t abide?

            Sometimes we as Believers feel distant from God.  We may want badly to feel His presence in our lives, but we can’t seem to get any closer.  We may chase hard after Him, we may put on our best look, and use the best language we have, but like Pepé Le Pew, we find that our quarry keeps slipping through our fingers, not able to endure our presence.

            A little bit of self examination is perfect right about now.  All of us will occasionally find things in our hearts or minds that only serve as walls to our experiencing God.  We’ll each periodically discover in our habits or attitudes elements that only hinder a free-flowing relationship with the Lord.

            It’s so good, then, to know that He won’t just leave us stuck with the spiritual body odor of having unresolved spiritual issues between us and Himself.  He can and will provide us a cleansing of those things if we’ll turn to Him.  In fact, what once smelled bad to Him can be changed into a sweet-smelling fragrance in which He delights.  Consider the Scripture that says in 2 Corinthians 2:14-15, “But thanks be to God, Who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.  For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”

            And so, through the spiritual cleansing that faith in Him as well as the constant refreshing that daily surrender to Him provides, we may enjoy an unhindered fellowship with our living Savior.  Doesn’t that just make good “scents”?  A life in close fellowship with Him is definitely a life worth hungering for.

(Thom Mollohan has ministered in southern Ohio the past eight years and is currently the pastor of Pathway Community Church.   He and his wife are the parents of three children.   He may be reached by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).