Smell the Smoke

My grandson and I went out a few nights ago and cooked up a little hot chocolate on a campfire. While sitting around the fire, the smoke seemed to chase us. We would move our camp chairs to escape the smoke and you know where the smoke went next, right? Yep, we were like smoke magnets. When we went back inside for the night, we smelled like we had been roasted.

In the world we live in, the smoke seems to be chasing us. It’s hard to get away from the clamor of the world.

When anyone mentions the Year 2020, we all have a collective eye roll. Many have become skeptical because we do not know who to believe anymore. Objectivity and true fact-finding have been given over to political posturing and construction of convenient narratives.

Yes, the smoke seems to chase us regardless where we sit around the fire!

I am thankful my hope is in Jesus and beyond this world. When the smoke gets thick, I step back from the fire and refocus on the spiritual truths that have stood the test of time.

Here are a few smoke filters I recommend:

Words of Jesus: “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19 NKJV).

Words of the Apostle John: “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith./ Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:4-5 NKJV)?

Words of Jesus: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NKJV).

You may not be able to get away from the “chasing-smoke” but you do not have to inhale it. Step back and get a fresh breathe from The One who first breathed into the nostrils of man.

Yours on the Journey,

Harry L. Whitt