I remember one trip in particular where some of Sophie’s equipment brought about a very interesting problem that we now laugh about all the time. One of my friends offered to drive us around while we were visiting in his area. This required that we transfer Sophie’s car seat to his car. We normally don’t move Sophie’s car seat around, but this was an easy transition, and once everyone was buckled in, we were on our way.

It wasn’t long after we were on the road that I began to notice a very strong and disturbing smell. As soon as we were out of the car, I asked Amy if she noticed the same thing, and she said, “Yes.” The next day we loaded up into my friend’s car, and once again the same sour smell bombarded our noses.

We were polite though, and never said anything about it to my friend. He was nice enough to drive us around, and we were going to be grateful for that no matter how much his car smelled like toe fungus mixed with rotting fish carcasses.

Once we were back in our SUV on the way home, Amy and I brought up the smell.

“Mitch is such a nice guy, but boy does his car stink!”

 “Do you think he knows and is embarrassed, or do you think he is unaware of how bad his car smells?”

“I think people just get used to their own stink after awhile, and don’t even know it’s them. You know, how some people’s house has a weird smell and they have no idea?”

“Poor Mitch. I hope someone talks to him about that before he really embarrasses himself.”

“Yeah me too. You know what though… I still smell it a little bit.”

“Oh yeah, I noticed that. It must have gotten on our clothes while we were riding with him.”

“Gross! It is pretty strong too!”

“Wait, it is too strong to be coming from our clothes. I think it is coming from our car.”

“How could that be, the only thing that was in his car is us and Sophie… and Sophie’s car seat.”

“Do you think Sophie’s car seat absorbed the smell? Wait, do you think Sophie’s car seat is the smell?”

“Ohmigosh! That smell is definitely coming from Sophie’s car seat!”

“The smell wasn’t coming from Mitch! It was coming from us! Mitch isn’t the stinky one. We are!”

Sometimes it’s hard to stop and realize that maybe the smell is not coming from someone else, but is actually coming from you.

In his book Pharisectomy, Peter Haas says, “We need to become painfully aware of how we’re obscuring God from those who need to connect with Him the most: the lost.”

Is it possible that some people are not seeing Christ in the proper way because we are not viewing them in the proper way? Has the fishbowl distorted our view of the outside world? Maybe the problem is not a world without the grace of God, but Christians who do not understand the grace of God.

Self-righteousness has a sneaky way of of giving Christians what Peter Hass calls a “religiously transmitted disease.” In other words, it’s possible that you have developed a legalistic or Pharisee-like perspective as you view the rest of the world through your religious bubble.

No one thinks that they are a Pharisee. I know I didn’t. I just thought I was standing for truth in a sea of worldliness while other Christians were being drug away by an undercurrent of compromise. I was so focused on picking apart everyone else’s position, that I never stopped to examine my own.

Pain has a way of changing that though. It has a way of causing you to ask questions that you probably would have never considered when you were comfortable. In this season of my life, when I found myself as a fish out of church, I was certainly uncomfortable, and I was definitely asking plenty of questions of God and myself.

In this process of soul searching, I can look back and identify some fishbowl perspectives that were distorting my view of others, as well as my relationship with God. I am tempted to go on and list those things here, but I won’t. Instead, I will ask you to take a moment and ask yourself this question, “Is it possible that the smell maybe coming from you?”

/// 

What perspectives, mindsets, and ways of seeing things have you developed that are possibly not held by Jesus? Have you checked the oil of self-righteousness lately, or had your eyes of grace examined? I know I needed to analyze these things in the worst kind of way. Maybe you do too.

“I think you should get the worst job you can possibly find and take it.”  

This was the sage counsel that I received about three months after I stopped working in ministry.  My plans for life as a minister had taken an unexpected turn that left me without a position on a church staff.  My involvement with church life had gone from 100 miles per hour to nothing all at once.  I also found it difficult to commit to a career change at this point in my life with my heart so set on ministry.  This left me in a place of limbo, and feeling pretty low. Now, my wise friend seems to believe that my downward path is not one of disappointment but of destiny.

“Why in the world would I want to do that?”  I confusingly asked. 

“Because whatever you do, it will only be temporary.  It will not be long before God elevates you, and lifts you out of this situation.  And when that happens, no one wants to hear the story of the guy who went from one great job to another even better job.  That doesn’t help anyone.  One day you are going to share your story, and listening is going to be a man who is down on his luck.  He will be discouraged, and ready to give up.  He will be out of money and working at a job that he can’t stand.  Then you will share your story. The story of how things didn’t work out as you thought they would. How you hit a rough patch, but you kept your eyes on Jesus, and it will give him hope that God can bring him out of his situation as well.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I keep thinking about the future and how I can possibly find a way to tell my story without mentioning this season in my life.”

“That is exactly it, you won’t skip this part of the story at all. This is the very story that you will tell. How you worked in the back of warehouse or in a kitchen washing dishes. You will tell of the people you met, and the pain you now share with them. It will be the story of how God brought you out of this pit that gives others hope, not how you skipped hard times altogether.”

I am tearing up at this point, but my chest is warm with peace. I know I have a difficult road ahead, but I believe it is the right road.  I am humbled by my circumstances, and honored that God would trust me with this unconventional journey.  

“Well, it shouldn’t be hard for me to follow your advice.  Before meeting with you today I accepted a job delivering pizza.” To say this out loud releases the tears that had been building up, as well as an unexpected explosion of laughter.

“That’s perfect,” he said with a smile and a hand on my shoulder. “It looks like it’s all coming together.”

///

Soon after this a friend sent me a text message from a book he had been reading.  It said, 

“When God has an impossible task, He finds an impossible man, and breaks him.”

Your ministry is not over, it is just beginning!