Stinky Breath Love

Last updated on: February 4, 2015 at 9:57 am by Kirk Franklin

Stinky Breath Love 2015-02-04T09:57:47-06:00 Kirk Franklin

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Now this is going to be very hard for some of you to believe in light of how fly and cool I am.

One morning my wife Tammy halted me as I attempted to make her morning by giving her a loving smack on the lips, because she said my breath was kicking like Bruce Lee. I was appalled. Did she forget who I was? The awards on the shelf, the souls won for the kingdom, the beautiful children I granted her with??? [I’m laying it on thick aren’t I!] Plus, I’m always on point with my hygiene game. How dare she not be honored that I chose her to bless with these sanctified lips before she stepped out of bed into this hard cruel world.

It shouldn’t even matter that I was a little tart, my presence alone should grant me grace in spite of my crusty lips and dragonesque aroma. Be quiet and kiss me woman!

I wanted her to look past my odor-ly dilemma, so I gave her entitlement, bravado, and self-righteous cockiness…

But.

If Tammy had rolled over in her hair bonnet, retainers, and itchy pajamas, whispering through her own fog of stank, “give momma some sugar!” I would’ve responded in the same way.

Its funny how we want people to accept our stink, but we reject theirs.

We want convenient ministries and comfortable sacrifices. We don’t mind getting our hands dirty as long as there is hand sanitizer close when we finish. The same patience and forgiveness we want often is not the same we offer. Comfortable Christianity… is actually selfish stewardship.

Somewhere between our hearts being pulled by the spirit to surrender our lives to Jesus the Christ and acknowledging that we were filthy and in need of saving… we forgot what it feels like to be dirty, lost, rejected, and stinky.

So dirty, lost and stinky people, relatives, and coworkers never get to feel the arms of Jesus because our suits, homes, cars or careers can’t be jeopardized by the time it takes to allow someone in our space, to mess up our schedules or guestrooms so they can be reminded that where you are now is not where you will always be.

Loving people is messy. Turn off the TV. Stop believing every character in the box office hit romance movie. These are actors. When the director yells “cut,” they get to go home, shower, and go on with their lives.

In real life, God the director doesn’t yell “cut!” There is no intermission. We are called to love people that don’t always love us back. To have our trust demolished by loved ones who cheat on us, lie on us, destroy our trust. But God screams through our anger and rage to love them unconditionally. When we do, we’re partaking in the divine nature of the savior; it is in the acts of unconditional love that we are most like Him.

God whispers in our spirits “I loved you when you treated me the same way…”

It’s not supposed to be a walk in a park, a fairytale of lilies and dancing sunsets. We’re talking about loving like Jesus. Hanging in there when the house is repo’d, when the job lays off, when the baby weight doesn’t come off easy, and when the wedding vows are being attacked by cancer. Love your enemies and be patient with new struggling and falling believers. Make time for family members that get on your last nerves, because you may be the only Jesus they’ll ever see. To never forget “it’s not about me.”

That my friend, is stinky breath love.

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