Are you a stinky sponge?! I know it sounds funny but let me explain about the stinky sponge… A couple of week ago we attended Pastor Jim’s seminary graduation. The speaker/valedictorian was talking about stinky sponges. He used that example how a sponge can really stink up the place if it’s dirty and being used over and over again. I chuckled as I heard him because we had a problem in our house with a stinky sponge. For some reason, it smelled so badly that I knew when Stephen used it to wipe down the counter. It was an old moldy smell. I, of course would go grab a new one once I noticed it and was a little taken that he failed to smell the thing. As I sat at the graduation listening to the speaker, I giggled and agreed with everything he shared about the stinky sponge. You see just like a sponge can soak up water and begin to smell if you don’t fully wring it out; we, Christians can be the same way. We soak up God’s word through our bible studies, teachings, and such, but we just sit there and don’t put it to good use… causing a stinky Christian.

So let me ask you, do you want to be a stinky Christian? Do you want to go through life just sitting around and soaking it all up but not wringing it out? We’re all guilty of doing this at some point in our life, and if we get into the habit of living this way, we’ll just continue to smell up the place. We need to push ourselves to get out of comfort zone and do something with the knowledge we have. We need to get connected with our Christians our age so we can be in full fellowship. You know what else? Once we are part of something, we desire to be involved. I think of the youth that helped out at the Neighborhood BBQ – some helped with the games, others were part of the worship team. This is just an example how we can “wring out” what we learn – to be in service to others. Everyone has a different gift, it’s a matter of finding out what that gift is and putting it to use. Once you do that, trust me, you won’t become a STINKY SPONGE! ;-)