carbonated joy

The other day, I took our beagle, Maggie, out for a walk.
It was a beautiful day, she was enjoying the sunshine and the cool breeze.
But, then suddenly she froze with her nose in the grass.
She smelled something and that stopped everything.
Our petite hound threw herself on the ground and started writhing around in the grass.
She had found something dead and she wanted to roll in it.
She loves to roll around in dead stuff.
She has a strange fascination with the foul.
She rolls around in it and it rubs off on her.
Suddenly, she smells like death.
Actually, she smells like death mixed with Frito corn chips…it’s not a pleasant thing.
It’s embarrassing.
But what is really sad is that we do the same thing…
We roll around in things that should be dead to us.
Failure.
Lies.
Insecurities.
Fears.
Unhealthy relationships.
The past.
We roll around in what we have killed off.
We refuse to leave it alone.
We refuse to let it lose its grip on us.
We roll around in it.
It rubs off on us.
You start to resemble what you roll in.
It rubs off on you.
I think that was what Jesus hinted at in Matthew 8:22 (MSG) when he is talking to a follower who wants to go bury his deceased dad (seems like a reasonable request) Jesus tells him “First things first, Your business is life, not death. Follow me. Pursue life.”
That seems a little harsh.
But, as the natural born enemy of death, Jesus knew what it could do if you roll around in it.
He is telling us to say goodbye to the deadness.
Those old ways of defining yourself and others.
Your mistakes.
Your sins that have been forgiven.
Say goodbye to the deadness.
Run to the liveness.
Writhe around in life.
Roll around in wide open fields of wild grace.
You end up smelling like fresh cut mercy.
You start to resemble what you roll around in.