Perfume Wars and Hidden Sins
by Joe Leavell
As the youngest of three brothers, it was always a good day when I got to be included in what my older siblings and their friends did for fun. In the ’90s, our version of ‘fun’ often meant spending the afternoon hanging out at the mall.
Our town was small, which meant our mall could be successfully walked through from end to end in around 5 minutes. That didn’t leave a lot of shops to occupy us for very long, so we had to get a bit creative. One such solution to our issue of entertainment was found at the department store.
Perfume wars!
In the 90s, like today, many department stores seemed to place their beauty products, colognes, and perfumes towards the front in display cases. On top of those glass cases was our weapon of choice - sample bottles of perfume.
The rules were simple: go into the department store when no one was looking, grab one or two samples as weapons, spray your opponent’s clothes, and engulf them in perfume as much and as quickly as possible without yourself being hit by their return fire.
These ‘wars’ were more aptly described as skirmishes really. None of us were in the mood to be escorted from the store, so these contentious battles of the fragrances lasted 30-60 seconds max before we would put our weapons down. From there we would simply leave the store and continue through the mall acting as if nothing had happened, laughing that we had “gotten away with it.”
Our teenage logic was that since they were free samples, we could determine how much of those free samples we wanted to use.
I mean, it’s not like we were bothering anyone, right? It was just us having a bit of fun. It’s not like anyone else was affected by our antics. We were the ones who were spraying each other. We didn’t spray anyone else! I’m sure our actions didn’t impact anyone else in the mall at all.
Right?
We smelled horrible! No doubt there! We weren’t dabbing a bit of cologne behind our ears and on our wrists, we were spraying full sprays again and again toward our opponents.
That smell would have been impossible to contain to just us. The odor would have lingered in the air throughout the department store. It followed us out into the mall, and wherever we walked. The unsuspecting customers who happened to pass by us must have been blasted by enough of a cacophony of smells that it would have made anyone sick! I can’t imagine what would have happened if someone with a fragrance allergy was nearby!
The poor employees who had to work there as well! They must have been used to the smells of people testing their scents, but not all of them at once in those quantities! Let me just publicly apologize for our juvenile misconduct, just in case one of those poor employees is reading this!
Not to mention, my poor mother! I didn’t get in on all the perfume wars, but I do remember my brothers coming home and Mom not being too happy with the laundry. The extra work to get the perfume oils out of our clothes would have been so aggravating!!
Impossible to Hide
“I didn’t think anyone would ever know! I didn’t think I was hurting anyone else!”
Have you ever heard these words? Have you ever said them yourself? These are the kinds of lies that we tell ourselves when we minimize our sins. We think that we can contain it, control it, manage it, and mitigate any potential damage it would have on our lives to something barely even noticeable.
I want to share with you that your attempts at hiding your sin usually go just about as well as keeping the scent isolated to just participants of our perfume war.
It’s funny that in our pungent clashes, we thought we were getting away with it because we would make sure no one was looking. But to say our battle was hidden is laughable because soon the smell would have spread through the entire area! Our sin works the same way. The effects of even the most hidden sin can be contained as effectively as the smell of our perfume war.
Sin has a way of growing and manifesting until it is nearly impossible to avoid being found out. Sometimes, those around you may not know the source of the smell but since they know you, they just recognize that something about you just “smells” off. On the other hand, it may be that your private sin has not been noticed because those around you are so accustomed to your sinful smell that they wouldn’t recognize what you’d be like without it.
Another way to think of it is that sin is like a seed. We think we can hide it by planting it deep down in the ground of our hearts where no one else can see. However, this is where seeds grow, developing roots until it pushes up to the surface. If not dealt with, then it will only continue to develop until it bears fruit. James 1 tells us that the fruit of all mature sin is death.
Your sin works the same way. No matter how hard you try to conceal it, it’s a fragrance that cannot be contained.
It WILL bear dark fruit in your life!
This is why Jesus says,
“Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.”
The Bible is full of examples of those who did things privately and thought they got away with it, only to be discovered at a later date. We regularly see examples of these words coming true in the public square as well. Yet we think we will be the exception?
“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
Impossible Not To Affect Others
“But I’m not hurting anyone else! This only affects me!”
This is another of many lies that we tell ourselves, and it’s still just as silly as us thinking that our perfume war didn’t harm anyone else.
Here’s the thing, people may not yet know that the rotten smell comes from you, but they are affected by it nonetheless. Your family is affected, your church is damaged, and your community is harmed when you seek to lead a private double life.
How does this work? Pornography is one such sin that people try to keep hidden but the effects on others are plain to see. Wives of men who look at porn may not yet know that their husband is looking at it, but they feel its effects regardless. Their husband is often irritable, secretive, disengaged, bitter, resentful, or demanding. Rather than sacrificially giving of himself, he sacrifices her good on the altar of his own lust. While she doesn’t know where the smell comes from, she is significantly impacted by her husband walking in sin rather than in the Spirit, and their relationship suffers.
The church also suffers because rather than investing his time and energy into learning and into blessing others, the porn user is selfishly engaged in self-gratifying lust. Rather than helping his brothers grow, he’s leaving them high and dry to fight their battles alone while he thinks only of his own sinful desires. His work is affected and he robs his employer of time and energy. His community is also impacted as he provides ad revenue to porn sites and literally is an active participant in the evils of the sex and slave trade.
While porn usage is obvious, we could select any number of private sins that, to varying degrees, have a significant impact on others. How about anger? How many think that your family looks so perfect when you go to church but your children know to cower from you in fear when you get into a rage? How about that extra beer or glass of wine that has gotten more and more regular? Have you considered how much time you’ve spent scrolling through social media, looking enviously at other people’s lives these days? Are you watching things on TV that are impacting your mind into accepting sin as ‘normal’ behavior? You may be privately looking at home, but it will bear fruit that harms others. It’s only a matter of time.
Here to Help
If you are hiding secret sins, and are struggling with knowing what to do, please reach out for help! For our part, we’re not here to shame you for that sin but to help walk with you to victory and freedom through Christ. He already knows, and He has not forsaken you! Neither will we! To keep it hidden and secluded is to invite pain on yourself, and on those who you love! We are a good place to start working through rooting out the sin that you’ve been seeking to hide.
James 5:16 tells us to “confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
It’s time to stop hiding and come to the light of Christ.
Please reach out today!
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