Life Without Smell

Tonight has generated a few stories that I’d like to share with you but to do that I’ll have to go back to the beginning. My blogs are about events that come across my path on a daily basis and I’ve had so many share how they are an encouragement to them. They are events that have actually happened in my life and relate to my life on a daily basis. I try to use these events to help you become stronger in your faith and your commitment to Christ.

While growing up I had the perfect childhood. Great parents, an amazing church that taught me about the love of Christ, I had a few years where I had perfect attendance at school and my grades were really good. My bumps along the way were an appendix that burst when I was young, a tooth knocked out while playing baseball and an infection that….well, let’s not go there.

It wasn’t until I was 18 that things began to change. My eyesight changed and I had to get glasses. Then in my late 20’s my physical health began changing. A guy who had never ever experienced an allergy had all of the sudden began developing allergies to everything that there was in life. For the next several years I was miserable because my eyes were constantly burning and my sinuses were always running or plugged up. I could sneeze for hours at a time and no relief was ever found. The older I got the worse my allergies got. Then it happened….the most divesting thing I’d experienced in all my days.

Tami and I lived in the country while pastoring a wonderful church in Wooster, Ohio. While we lived there a great friendship grew with a neighbor who lived just down the street. Not only did his family become faithful attendees of our church but also our friendship led to many great rounds of golf. Dennis was a good loser because I was a much better golfer but that is another story for later…I love you Dennis! LOL But the course we golfed at every week was an amazing course, Country Club quality but at cheap man pricing, which was located out in the middle of farm country. Every spring when they were getting the fields ready for planting they would fertilize them with liquid manure which was horrible to smell. Every year we would tolerate the smell just to golf this great golf course.

Then it happened, one year while we were in the middle of our round of golf Dennis began complaining about the smell. I looked at him amazed because it didn’t smell the stince. And as we began talking I quickly realized that I could no longer smell. Something that I had just accepted as a part of my normal everyday life was gone, I could no longer smell. And it wasn’t long before I discovered that I could no longer taste the various flavors of life.

That event occur over 15 years ago and I’ve come to accept it as just a part of my life. I can’t taste or smell so there are so many thing in life that I’m missing out of. Spiritually I wonder how many of us have lost our sense of taste and smell and we can no longer see the wonderful things that God has for us as His children. We just accept the norm knowing that nothing is different yet God has so much for us to taste and smell. The Bible says, taste and see how good the Lord is! Yet, if I can’t smell, I can’t taste. Don’t lose your taste of the Lord!