It must be donut day

The office that I work in is located directly above a bakery. Each morning when I come in to work, I take at deep breath and breathe in the lovely smells that come from the bakery below. One morning it might be the smell of apple pie that makes its way up. The next could be chocolate cake or cinnamon buns, or fresh bread. Every day it's something different depending on what is being baked. My favourite day is donut day.

At first I thought the smells would make me crazy (or at the very least quite fat!) but I found that after a while I could no longer smell the baked goods all day. I simply got used to the smell being there. Yes, the smells are new again each day, but a minute or two after I arrive they fade into the background and I am no longer aware of them.

When people come to our office for the first time, very often the first thing they ask me is "How can you stand working all day with the smell coming from the bakery??" and they are incredulous when I tell them that I don't really smell it anymore. It's there of course, but it's not really something I notice beyond the first minute or two. But from time to time the smell will assault me once again and then I'll go downstairs and get a treat from the bakery. When I do, I always wonder to myself why I don't partake of this goodness every day.

I got to thinking how there is a danger for us as Christians to treat the Gospel message the same way. To let it fade into the background where we don’t notice it anymore in our life. I don't mean that we neglect to share it with the lost (though we may be guilty of that too), I mean we fail to regularly recall it in our own lives.

The Gospel is not simply for unbelievers. It is for sinners, and when we become Christians we don't cease to be sinners in need of a Saviour. Until the day we die, we remain utterly dependent on the shed blood of Christ for our salvation.

I think sometimes we treat grace and mercy as if it were the spiritual “milk”. “Oh, that’s for unbelievers”, we think. “I’m saved, so I need to move on to the “meat” of learning to live by his precepts.” Because I love Him, I DO strive to walk in the Word and live according to his will, but this is a fallen world and I am a fallen creature and I sin daily in thought, word and deed. I need to hear the Gospel message just as often to console and strengthen my faith. I need to be reminded that it’s not about what I do for Christ, but what Christ has already done for me.

If you read my last post, you already know that I’ve been wearing a pair of crankypants today over the issue of baptism...and I’m not going to revisit it here. But I wanted to share this with you: Did you know that when Lutherans make the sign of the cross “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, we are recalling our baptism? According to Romans 6:3-4, by baptism we have been made to share in Christ’s death and resurrection and as He is risen from the dead and lives, so we too live a new life in Him. Recalling one’s baptism is a simple, but powerful way of daily recalling the Gospel and it’s promises.

Which is way better than the smell of donuts, by the way.