Smell the Roses — Aneel Aranha

Hello and welcome to The Hope Podcast. I’m Aneel Aranha. Today, we will talk about how, as we journey through life, we should take time to smell the roses. 

Life can move at breakneck speed, especially in the cities, where everybody seems to be in a rush, trying to get ahead of each other. Even our modes of transportation are getting faster and faster. While this is not necessarily bad, what is the point if we don’t use the time we have saved fruitfully? The problem is that we will just use that time to work even harder at getting ahead. For what? Money? Fame? Power?

Let me tell you a modern-day parable. Once, there was a boy named Jack who was a happy, go-lucky kid who enjoyed life. One day, when Jack was on his way home from school, he spied a coin on the path. Delighted, he picked it up, and after examining it thoroughly, he went on his way feeling like a millionaire. When he reached home, he put it in a glass jar so he could look at his treasure. The next day, Jack found another coin, and he couldn’t believe his luck. This coin joined its brother in the glass jar. 

Over the next few days, Jack kept his eyes peeled for more coins on the road. Sometimes, he found something; more often, he didn’t. His glass jar was filled to the brim by the end of the year, and Jack thought he was very rich. However, what Jack didn’t realize was that he had missed seeing the birds flying and the flowers dancing; he had missed seeing the light paint beautiful pictures in the sky; he had missed seeing a thousand wonders—all because he had his eyes fixed on the ground searching for treasure.

This is a beautiful planet (despite the terrible way we have treated it), and God has created it—and everything in it—for us to enjoy. Yet, we don’t seem to have the time for it anymore, and I think that is a shame. If only we could slow down and take time to smell the flowers. 

And while we are at it, we can consider something that Jesus said. “Consider how the flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you ....” (Luke 12:27-28).

We will all get to where we need to be. How we get there determines how well we have lived our lives.

God bless you.