Following one of our Sunday church services, a woman came up to me and asked if she could speak with me for a couple of minutes. I politely obliged and she started sharing:
“I’m usually a pretty negative person. I get all these negative thoughts in my head, and it takes days to get them out. A week ago, during our worship time, I felt something click. All of a sudden, I didn’t experience those thoughts. In fact, I went an entire week without having any negative thoughts. That’s unheard of for me.
But wait, there’s more.
I’ve also been working on dealing with shame in my life. I had felt that I couldn’t put my finger on what was causing the shame. All of a sudden, the Tuesday after that church service, I started crying on the MRT. I realized that God was clearly revealing to me what shame I could deal with. He showed me how He has been there the whole time and wants to heal those areas of my life.
But wait, there’s more.
I know that God wants me to initiate forgiveness and honor in my family, so I reinitiated contact with some family members I hadn’t been in touch with for a long while. Already, God has started doing things through those conversations.”
She shared a couple more instances with me that I’m choosing not to say, but I can recount that it was amazing. I sensed God’s pleasure and joy within her newfound freedom and the new life that’s been restored in her. The theme of her story was indeed, “But wait, there’s more.”
In fact, after that initial conversation, she proceeded to send me text messages. This is what she said: “There’s actually one more thing that happened in Sunday during the Christmas Eve service that I didn’t really share with you. Since my parents passed away I’ve always struggled with “Christmas depression” . . . usually it starts the first or second week of December, and continues until the first week of January. This year has been different. For one, it only started to happen the week before Christmas, and also it wasn’t as intense. Anyway, Christmas Eve was a hard day for me. And when I showed up at Aroma, I thought I was OK, but then I started tearing up as worship started. Then I felt Jesus asking, why are you holding onto this thing? Don’t you think that I’m strong enough to take it? Honestly, the idea had never occurred to me. I’ve always shared the burden with Him, but it never occurred to me that He wanted to release me from the burden [itself]. (Haha) So I did. And right away the sadness was replaced with this peace. Ah, Jesus is good indeed! And since that Sunday, the usual sadness hasn’t returned; only moments. And when those moments come, I give them to Jesus and the sadness disappears. Umm . . . and there’s more. Remember that time we talked about family and I mentioned how broken things were? And you responded with something like . . . it’s not impossible. To which I responded with supreme doubt. Well, perhaps it’s not so impossible (haha). Today my middle brother (whose father-in-law I asked you to pray for) messaged me saying my eldest brother had done something. Turns out, he gave [my middle brother] two gift cards: a $25 one for my niece and a $50 one for Red Lobster for my brother and his wife. My brother said he was so surprised all he could say was thank you. This is the first time in 17 years that our eldest brother has given him a Christmas gift! I know this might just be a one-time thing, but it happened and my heart is so full! Just thinking about it makes me tear up. Jesus, seriously?? Even this you want to do?!? It’s like He’s taking care of business one thing at a time. Like He was just waiting for me to be brave so that He could begin to heal the brokenness. When I was on the MRT today, the verse about the mustard seed and faith came to mind (Matthew 17:20).”
That verse reads: “. . . Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Sometimes, we don’t keep up. Sometimes, we seem a bit off and a bit out of place. But God doesn’t see it that way. He sees us “about His business.” And that’s it. That’s precisely why we exist: to be about our Father’s business. What does He do? He builds highways in deserts. He sings songs over people. He speaks life. He raises the dead. He opens blind eyes. He sets people free from guilt, fear, and shame. He’s so good! And I’m sure there’s going to be more. In fact, I’m sure that you’re going to get something out of this, too. What’s your struggle? What’s the impossible thing in your life? Jesus has given you the keys to the Kingdom (Matthew 16:19). He’s given you a mustard seed of faith (Luke 17:6). What burden does He want to remove? What situation does He want to radically change? Where will He put His resources? Will the Son of Man find faith on the earth (Luke 18:8)? I believe He will. Christ is in you. That’s the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
That’s why we do what we do at Aroma. It’s about helping people be reconnected to the Father. Our hope is that every person has a chance to smell, become, and spread The Aroma of Christ so that they can experience the Father’s business in their own lives while also building bridges to those around them who haven’t experienced the fullness of “Our Father’s Business.”