Priming the senses

When I was a firefighter we would usually have one of the guys in the group cook on a regular basis. This would help with the budget and frankly, once you find a good cook, you want to stick with that person. Whenever he would fix a meal the rest of us would usually comment "wow, that really smells great". By the time dinner would be served we were rushing to the table to eat whatever had been prepared for us. His response when we would comment on the aroma was always the same, "that's half the battle".
After I went into ministry I was talking with a culinary school graduate about this memory of mine. He had an interesting observation. He mentioned, as some of us know, that our sense of smell plays a huge part in taste. During one of his classes they performed a little experiment on this. The meal was simply hot dogs and baked beans. Not much aroma to this meal. When they served it the first time they only fixed the meal with no extra aroma or attempt to spread the aroma. The comments were what one would normally expect (good meal, not bad, etc.). The next time they prepared the same meal. However, this time they roasted some garlic and baked some bread at the same time. Nothing was added to the meal. It was the same exact meal that was served the first time. This time though the comments were much more praise filled. Great meal! Did I smell garlic? This is good bread (it was not the bread being cooked).

You may be wondering what I am getting at. Well, I feel the same goes when we talk to people about Christ. We can simply start talking and I am sure the message will eventually get through. Whether people accept the message or not, they will respond to the it. However, when we take the time to get to know people, to show people the blessing of Christ in our own lives; that message will have much more of an impact on their own lives. It will be so much easier for people to take in the good news we are giving to them if we do more than simply talk with them. Paul speaks of how we are the aroma of Christ in 2 Corinthians 2:14-15

[14] 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. [15] For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

I want to encourage all of you to simply "show" Christ to others in your lives before you try to "tell" them the good news. Get people wanting to hear what it is that makes your life full of hope. This will make it so much easier to evangelize the lost.

Tim