The Root Of My Rot

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —

his good, pleasing and perfect will.

(Romans 12:2)

Last week, I got all twisted up and bent out of shape. And, honey, everyone in my house knew Mama wasn’t happy. I tried everything to usher gentleness back into my tone and my temper.

I quoted verses.

I rebuked Satan.

I bossed my feelings around with truth.

I even tried to take a nap.

But none of these activities soothed me.

One of my people had done something to introduce a smell into my home that not even three Yankee candles could mask. And I am supersensitive to smells. Like hyper-crazy sensitive.

As the mysterious, awful smell continued to waft through my home, assaulting my nasal passages, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it was or where it was coming from.

I lit candles, I sprayed stuff, I even covered my nose with the edge of my shirt … but I still smelled it.

Finally, I realized my daughter had placed a bathroom trash can onto the middle of my bedroom floor and propped open the flip-up lid so she could throw away scraps of paper as she worked on a school project. Something had obviously been thrown away in that forgotten trash can that had surpassed gross and moved into the final stages of rot.

Or something had crawled up into that can and died.

I didn’t have the heart to find out what it was; I just knew the can had to go. Immediately.

The smell was an outside indication of an internal situation. And the trash can wasn’t the only thing that stunk that night. So did my attitude. My reaction was an outside indication of an internal situation.

The reason I couldn’t be soothed by quoting Scripture verses, bossing my feelings, rebuking Satan, or even taking a nap is because God wanted me to be aware of my stink … something inside of me that was gross … a place starting to rot. I had some bitterness I’d stuffed and tried to pretend wasn’t there. I’d been hurt by a friend and didn’t want to confront the issue or forgive the person who had hurt me. But the rot was there and the stink from deep within my heart kept spilling out.

God didn’t want me to temporarily mask the situation by feeling better in the moment. He wanted me to address the root of my rot—to see it, admit it, expose it, let Him clean it up, and shut it down. Immediately.

A little rot can spread fast and furiously if not dealt with swiftly and seriously.

That’s why it’s so crucial to pay attention to our reactions today. How we react is a crucial gauge of what’s really going on inside us. When people or issues or situations bump into our happy, it’s not wrong to feel annoyed. But if that annoyance leads to a reaction out of proportion to the issue at hand, we can bank on the fact that this eruption has a root of rot.

Here are some telltale signs of roots of rot:

These are not fun to admit, but here’s the beauty of the situation: The quicker we see a root of rot, the quicker we can get rid of the stink and move forward.