Love the Healthy Smell of Fresh Produce

I enjoy going grocery shopping not worrying about efficiency nor time while enjoying (and probably annoying) the folks around me.  I probably don’t want to ask these folks their opinion of this weird, silver headed, short, stocky outgoing old man they are looking at!  One of the things that I appreciate is a grocery store that gives tender loving care to their fresh produce.  I find myself taking my leisurely time slowly moving and taking in the freshness and smell.  After carefully selecting my healthy choices, I slowly walk away feeling good about myself and grateful.  You, young, strong, fast paced, take-no-prisoner men and women stop laughing as you get a glimpse into the life of an old man!  😊

Our Happy New Year will be based on how well we take care of the Holy Spirit Who resides in our heart and exudes the freshness and wholeness of Jesus in us and through us to other people.  What odor will we give off to others if we do?  2 Corinthians 2 “¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. ¹⁵ For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. ¹⁶ To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life.”  Once we are obedient to Him, captive to His will, we become “the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”  Like the fresh produce department, we give a smell of wholeness exuding freshness.

The Holy Spirit in us and through emits “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22&23).  Let me assure you, you want to hangout and around this type person leisurely and appreciatively enjoying fresh fellowship.

Lamentations 3 nails it, “²⁰ My soul is downcast within me.²¹ Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:  ²² Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.²³ They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ²⁴ I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore, I will wait for him.” Jeremiah, the great prophet, while “downcast” remembered the Lord’s wonderful “compassions which never fail” and “are new every morning…great is your faithfulness.”

You want to have a successful and happy in the New Year?  Continuously, “call to mind” during each of these 365 days of 2021 that “his compassions never fail…and are new every morning; great is (His) faithfulness.”  If so, your life will transform to a person of faith, compassion, and wholeness.  People will want to share life with that kind of person and at a leisurely pace.

Blessings of God this New Year!