A Sweet-smelling Aroma

Posted on Mar 6, 2018 in Pastor's Blog |

I must preface this post by stating the obvious: I’m not from around here. I married into Cabarrus county—I married pretty well, I might add—and so I know that I bring an “outsider’s” perspective to everything I encounter. But YOU, dear reader, need to realize this perspective, because my assessment of things might not be “the accepted take” on Concord. I will now proceed… 

There are several things—unique and wonderful—that I think of when I think of my new home in Concord. While I’ve only lived here for five and a half months, I’ve maintained these thoughts over years of visiting the area. These markers distinguish Concord from any number of other places in North Carolina, the United States, and even the world.

 What are these distinctions, you ask? Well, first, and perhaps most obviously, is the Charlotte Motor Speedway and the NASCAR culture that accompanies it. (Yes, I realize that the culture existed before the speedway, but the speedway is RIGHT THERE. You really can’t miss it.) The second significant landmark is the Cabarrus Creamery. (Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is so good I can almost detect the texture of the sugar in the ice cream. Wow!) The third one, however, is the reason for this post today. The third landmark that sets Concord apart from most other cities is the S&D Coffee plant.

 This morning, as I exited my car in the church parking lot, I smelled it. There aren’t many smells as wonderful and delightful as roasting coffee. If it wasn’t sprinkling when I got out, I would have been tempted to just stand there and breathe it in. I can’t even really describe the way that it smells—Earthy? Subtle? Eye-opening? Rich?—but it is one of those smells that soothes and excites, all at the same time. I’m amazed that the coffee smell blankets almost all of Concord.

 As I reflect on its pungency, I’m reminded of 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 (ESV):

            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. For we are

            the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those

            who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance

            from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

 

When we allow Christ to live through us, permeating all of our being, we become an aroma of Him to the world. Like S&D through its roasting coffee flavors all of Concord, so Christ-followers ought to flavor their spheres of influence just by existing there. We are to be the world’s sweet-smelling aroma.
 
In Him,
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Pastor Jim