A Lingering Smell

I came home from vacation last week and noticed that something didn't quite smell right. Since the cat's litter box is right there near the door, I figured she must have been feeling a bit uneasy in the three days I was gone. That had to be the source of the smell. I promptly emptied the litter box and went about my business. The next day, there was still a smell. I checked the trash (which I had emptied as I walked out the door for my trip), I checked to see if there was any bad food in the refrigerator or pantry, but I found nothing. I kind of shrugged it off and continued about the day. On Saturday morning, I woke up, and the smell had moved from the front of the house to the back of the house. I had a busy day at church, so I decided on my way home that evening I would buy some of that carpet fresh powder stuff. Maybe it was in the carpet. Surely that would get rid of the smell. Well, my clean linen smell lasted about 15 minutes, and it didn't really mix well with the odor that was consuming the house. But I forged on. On Sunday, the smell was really bad in the back of the house. I wasn't there most of the day, so it wasn't too big of a deal until Sunday evening. I again checked the refrigerator and trash cans. I joked on the phone with my dad that there was something dead in my house. Okay, I must say that this option really freaked me out. I don't do well with dead things! So, I tried to ignore the smell for another day. Finally, on Tuesday I thought, I should check under the crawl space of the house. I opened up the door and found standing water (with mold on top) right inside the door. I didn't really see anymore water, but I figured that had to be the source of this odor. Since I live in campus housing, I told our Director of Maintenance, and since it was the end of the day, he promised to check it out the next morning.

That evening when I got home around 8:15, the odor nearly knocked me over as I went in the door. It was horrible! I began to wonder what I should do. My dad offered to pay for a night in a hotel, but I didn't really want that. That idea of something dead inside my house kept creeping up to the front of my mind. I finally concluded that my inside cat must have killed something while I was on vacation and left it for me to find. Let me state again, I don't do well with dead things. I don't want to see them. I don't want to know what they looked like. I don't want anything to do with it! I went through my list of friends who would be willing to come over that late in the evening and search my house for this dead animal. I finally decided to take advantage of living on campus with a police force and called one of the officers on duty. This is how the conversation went:

Jimmy: Hello
Kim: I need a favor. It's kind of personal.
Jimmy: Okay. What is it?
Kim: There is something dead in my house, and I will pay you if you will come find it and get rid of it.

After some laughter he promised to be there in a few minutes. He, too, was nearly knocked over by the smell at the door. With his experience with dead things as a cop, he said immediately, "Yeah, that's the smell of death." Now this did not make me feel better, but I accompanied him as he looked behind couches, in closets, and more to try to find the source of the smell. He was baffled like me because there seemed to be no place in the house where the smell was strongest. It seemed impossible to pinpoint where it was coming from. I finally decided to show him what I had found under the house. He saw the moldy water, but was not so sure that small amount could cause such a putrid smell through the entire house. He took his flashlight and started looking through the vents (I don't know if that's what they're called, but that's what they look like)on the outside of the house. When he got to the last one, he found the source of the smell. A dead cat! That vent was broken leaving a small hole open so that an animal could get under the house, and there was even fur on the broken part.

As he tried to recover from the smell, I was racking my brain trying to figure out who to call to come get this dead cat. I certainly wasn't going to ask Jimmy to do it. First of all, that's not his job as a campus safety officer. Secondly, Jimmy is over 6 feet tall. Not exactly the size of person who could easily crawl under the house. Thirdly, the smell was horrific. I wouldn't have even asked my worst enemy to go under there if they weren't being paid to do so. But Jimmy offered. He had to get the other officer on duty to bring the mask and filter that police officers use to handle dead bodies and such, but he got it out. And I am so very thankful. It was quite the adventure as the cat's body was covered with maggots and the inside was full of beetles. I know, nice mental picture, huh? The great thing was, I never had to see it. He kept trying to get me to look at it, but I refused, seeing as how I don't like dead things!

Okay, now to the point of this post. After all of that was over and the cat was gone, I went back into my house on a mission to get rid of the odor. I burned several candles throughout the house for several hours. I sprayed cinnamon room deodorizer.

But the smell of death lingered.

This morning when I said that aloud to myself, the Holy Spirit brought something to mind. Is this how I live my life? It's how I lived my life yesterday, and several people noticed it. In defeat. Do I live in the lingering smell of death from the cross? Sometimes I find myself there. I fail to recognize that through the death and resurrection of Jesus, I have victory. He did not stay dead. The women, who were braver than I am about dead things, went to put the burial spices on Jesus' body that third day. I bet they were expecting to find the lingering smell of death. But they didn't! They found an empty tomb, and because of that empty tomb, we have the victory! I don't have to live in defeat. I don't have to live with the lingering smell of death. I don't have to settle for that attitude or for that life! Paul says it like this in his letter to the Romans:

"Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!" Romans 5:9-10 (The Message)

Heavenly Father, may I not live in the lingering smell of death, but in the hope of the resurrected life through my Lord, Savior, and friend, your Son, Jesus Christ.