When the Scent Is Too Strong!

Walking my dog Sadie can sometimes be a bit frustrating. She is what I would call, a scent dog. Although she is relatively good on the leash, her scent instinct can suddenly kick in such that, our twice daily walks can turn into a constant repeat of, walk-pull-sniff. We will be walking along when she suddenly pulls to the right or left, sticks her nose to the ground, and becomes glued to a spot. It seems no matter how hard she tries to walk nicely with me, when she catches that whiff, she becomes totally distracted and can’t help herself; the scent  can be too strong for her to overcome.  

It makes me think about how often I can become distracted by things around me—distracted from what I really ought to be doing. There are times when without thinking, I lunge away from my task at hand and find myself glued to something that has caught my attention. It could be the notification that another email has come into my inbox or that someone has liked my Facebook or Instagram post. Without thinking there is that sudden urge to answer that email or see who it was who responded to the post!  I can be distracted by a song that begins to play on a Spotify playlist, taking my concentration off of what I’m doing at the time. It could be a phone call or text message that comes in that I feel, I “just have to answer.” And the list can go on. 

You know as well as I, life is full of distractions—some necessary, most not. And if we are not careful we can find ourselves being pulled in one direction or another by one distraction after another.  Our lives can become filled with “scents” that we find too strong to overcome. The end result is, we’ve not accomplished what should have been accomplished, lived the way we ought to have lived, or fulfilled the calling that has been upon our lives. 

In Matthew’s gospel, we read of Jesus out in the wilderness for 40 days, fasting and praying as he prepared himself for his public ministry. At the end of that time, Satan comes to him to tempt him, we might say, to distract him from his mission. He puts before Jesus an opportunity to feed himself, prove himself, and to gain fame a fortune. It was a “scent” that most people would have been drawn to—a scent that many of us may have found too strong to ignore. But Jesus would not be distracted; he would not give in. Jesus was so incredibly focused on his goal, “the joy set before him” (Hebrews 12:2), that he turned down and quickly turned away from those things that could have set him off course. In the end, however, there was no scent strong enough to draw Jesus away from his mission. 

I pray that with God’s help, we would have that same strength and fortitude, such that nothing in life would be strong enough to distract us or draw us away from the life God has called us to live. Instead may we say with the Apostle Paul,  “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14 – NIV) Or as the writer of Hebrews says, ”And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith….”  (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Have a great day! 

- Pastor Tim Harris