The sillage of Christ
“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.”
Someone sits down next me on the plane and my only thought is how can I get away? What is that cologne? Was a whole bottle used? I can't breathe!
It's not at all like Miss Benson, my third grade teacher. Every time she walked by, my only thought was how nice her perfume smelled. I hoped she would pass by again!
Let our lives be a pleasant fragrance rather than an obnoxious odor. Chances are we'll be invited to come by time and time again.
Incidentally, the word sillage relates to how a smell lingers. It's a property of perfumes and colognes.
There will be trouble
“In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
“Every problem in the world is a relationship problem.”
Relationships between people are hard enough. Competitiveness, greed, insecurity, and zero-sum thinking make relating a minefield.
But in an organization, so much friction is caused by competing systems. Align the systems and relationships quickly improve; wasted energy is put to productive use.
Unsalty salt
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”
What does it mean for salt to lose its taste; to lose its saltiness? Table salt—sodium chloride—is an extremely stable compound. It doesn't just lose its saltiness.
I recently finished a book by John Stott titled Reading the Sermon on the Mount. In it he explains how salt can lose its taste—the only way salt can lose its taste: by contamination. Salt can become so diluted with impurities that it's really no longer salt.
The obvious parallel is that Christians can become so contaminated with the world that we are no longer able to season culture. Apart from Scripture and godly community this drift can be surprisingly easy and unnoticeable.
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