I have a very strong sense of smell memory. I can smell things and instantly be reminded of an emotion, an event, or a season. If you wear Sweet Pea fragrance from Bath and Body works and I smell it, I may first cringe and then smile. It was the scent my best friend gave me as a gift when I was expecting Kate. I took it to the hospital and it was what I used to take my first shower after an extremely traumatic delivery. I cringe because I remember the trauma, the pain, the uncertainty. I smile because I left the hospital 3 days later with a perfect, beautiful baby girl. The lady next to my room wasn’t so fortunate.
There are other scents that cause emotions and memories. Certain food smells or building smells conjure up fond memories or not so fond memories. I love the smell of BBQ. Most people probably do, but not like I do. The smell of BBQ sometimes takes me back to my senior of high school when my family started a BBQ restaurant and we frequented there. However, more often it takes me all the way back to when my grandmother was alive and summer days were spent at my aunts house. I would have spent the day swimming with my cousins and my Aunt Paulette would come out and tell us the glorious news that my dad and Uncle Wayne were “cooking chicken and ribs” which meant that I got to stay at Aunt Paulette’s for the remainder of the day. My family would gather and we would eat what would eventually become known as Choctaw Willy’s barbecue. It was heaven, not just because the food was good, but it brought security and my heart was full.
Once I got to college, I became familiar with another smell, one that was lovingly termed Backyard. I participated in a tutoring ministry while at Lee that tutored underprivileged kids across the tracks. It was a wonderful experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. One day, after unloading the kids I tutored, my roommates and friends loaded up in my car to go eat. One of them got in and said, “Oh my gosh, it smells like Backyard.” And the phrase was coined. (I made a stop at Walmart that night to buy Febreeze to keep in my car. I kept a bottle of Febreeze in my car for 4 years.)
You may wonder what Backyard smells like. Let me see if I can help you understand… take a wet dog, add dirty cat litter, fry some sort of food and let the oil sit. Then, add a healthy dose of boy that hasn’t showered in 3 days, cigarette smoke, cheap beer, and then add a bag of Funyuns. That’s the smell of Backyard. Now, I’m sure anyone who ever worked at Backyard has their own specific formula to help describe the scent. It is unmistakable.
Recently, Jeff encountered the scent in an unexpected place. He calls me and says, “Gosh, I opened the door and it smelled like Backyard.” Instantly, I knew to what he was referring. It wasn’t the smell itself, it was the implication. The implication of poverty. Deep, dirty, poverty. Poverty that literally will take your breath.
The definition of poverty that strikes me most is the state of being inferior in quality. Inferior. Less than. Less than others. Not having enough. Lower in rank. Lower in position. Lower in quality. When I think about these, I could sit and cry. How does one live constantly feeling inferior to others? Yet, those who live in poverty feel that way.
Then I think to myself, I know so many who live lives of inferiority without living in poverty. Their houses and cars don’t smell like Backyard. They’re not living off of the kindness of local churches or government programs, yet they act like they are. They are living inferior lives as if God didn’t make them equal to others. Paul tells us, there is neither Jew nor Greek, nor male nor female, slave nor free in the Kingdom of God (my translation). If you are forgiven, walk in that freedom with confidence that God has redeemed you and called you by name. If you feel inferior, stop believing the lie of spiritual poverty. God hasn’t saved you for you to live a life of “less than”. Your life doesn’t have to reek with the scents of Backyard, the sign of poverty. It can smell as clean as fresh laundry. God has called you to walk in his freedom and believe what he says about you. You are chosen. You are called. You are loved. You are worthy of his love. You are enough.
As my Granny used to say, “You’re as good as the best, and better than the rest.” So act like it.
God has not given us a spirit of timidity. 2 Timothy 1:7
