Detecting The Aroma Of Christ (June 25, 2006)

"You must be believers!"

It was a bold guess on the part of my friend and colleague, Haitian minister Franco Valdemar. He had been eating lunch in a Chinese buffet when he walked up to a booth of four gentleman and told them that he figured they had to be Christians. I asked Franco if it was because he had overheard them talking about the Lord, and he said no. It was just the way they interacted with each other.

It turns out he was right, of course. One of the men was a minister, and he eventually invited Franco to his church to talk about his work in Haiti.

Franco's good guess reminded me of the time I walked into a barber shop and the barber immediately asked me (kind of loudly), "Are you a minister?" I said yes, and asked how he knew. He said, "Felt the Spirit!"

Of course there are natural explanations for ESPOCP (Extra Sensory Perception Of Christian Presence). Maybe Franco actually had heard the four lunch-eaters mention Jesus but did not consciously realize it. Maybe that barber asked every stranger with a tie who walked into his shop during work hours the same question he asked me.

But I suspect you could cull enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that there really exists a spiritually detectable "fragrance of Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:15-16). I asked Franco if strangers ever pegged him as a Christian, and he said "All the time." A colleague of mine in Florida, who wears no ministerial dress whatsoever, once asked, "Do I wear a sign around my neck that says 'Pastor' or something? How do they know?"

My favorite of these stories involves a friend of a friend who walked into a cabin in Alaska where a motley crew were gathered. A man there said to him, "As you came through that door I perceived that you had no pretensions or guile. That means one of two things. Either you've done a lot of acid or you're a born-again Christian." He had not done any acid.

The other day I saw a bust of Lenin. Look at any picture of him and you can't miss the "frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command" that Shelley's traveler saw in Ozymandias. If I had never heard of Lenin, I think I could just look at his face and say, "Whoever that is, I'll bet you he doesn't love Jesus."

Here's praying that your love for Jesus creates within you a holy joy that practically oozes out your pores, and provokes the occasional question, "Are you a Christian or something?"