Making Sense
Apparently, dogs have an astounding sense of smell. I read in the paper the other day about how one tracked a man who had stolen some cigarettes, right to his house. The only more incredible thing about that story is that the police search of the house ended when they found the guys feet sticking out from under his bed. But it’s a well-established fact that canines have this great olifactory sense. I guess the question I have is, if they smell so great, why do we so often find their noses in the same places? I can smell better than that.
Sensitivity is an underrated thing. People often use the word “sensitive” in a derogatory way. “Oh, she’s just sensitive.” Guys get called sensitive and it’s somehow an effeminate thing. But there are other words that mean the same thing, that are used to more positively praise someone. Quick, perceptive, even “kind.” Sensitivity is being able to receive small impulses and respond accordingly. I invited some people to my house the other night to watch a movie. I tried to pick one that was “clean” with good morals, and all that. We tend to remember films differently than they really are. This one was not so good. Sure, it had some good values in it, but was laced with innuendos of all the wrong kinds. About 20 minutes into the movie, I noticed that one of the guys had left. In another few minutes, his fiancé was gone too. At that point another sexual insinuation occurred and I turned it off. I went to go apologize to the two that had left. They bore me no hard feelings and understood this phenomenon of selective memory when it comes to films.
They were sensitive to wrong, to sin. They weren’t going to let it into their minds and hearts – even at the cost of getting something possibly good. They counted that cost. It wasn’t worth it. Where was my sense? People sometimes talk about Jesus often being found with the tax collectors and “sinners”. They talk about him “fitting in” with that crowd better than with the Pharisees and Scribes. I don’t think he fit in at all. I think he stuck out like a dove among crows. But that was why they liked him! He wasn’t with them doing what they were doing. The Creator-King was among the outcasts of his fallen creation to BE a message of repentance to them. What did he say to the woman caught in the “very act” of adultery? He said, “Go and leave your life of sin.” But he was there because they were receptive to him. He said to the religious types, “the sinners and tax collectors are entering the kingdom of heaven ahead of you.” He went where he would be received. He came to his own, the Jews, and his own did not receive him. No receptivity there. He then had to say, “Your house has left you desolate.”
People who lose one particular faculty of sense often find their others sharpened. A blind person can hear better than one with sight. A deaf person can see better than one with hearing still intact. I learned from my young friends who left the room, that sometimes you have to close your eyes to hear better. Bombardment of the senses can drown out the signals God sends. I want to be more receptive. I want to be more perceptive. I don’t want to miss what the Lord is telling me right now…
Christ never gave in to sin, and so has the greatest sensitivity to it. My sense of it has gotten dulled by giving in. This is yet another area where I have to trust something that he has and I don’t. I love the benediction in Jude… “Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.” That’s what Jesus is up to. I have to be tuned by him, like a virtuoso does his instrument - like a trainer does his sniffer-dog.
BJ
Sensitivity is an underrated thing. People often use the word “sensitive” in a derogatory way. “Oh, she’s just sensitive.” Guys get called sensitive and it’s somehow an effeminate thing. But there are other words that mean the same thing, that are used to more positively praise someone. Quick, perceptive, even “kind.” Sensitivity is being able to receive small impulses and respond accordingly. I invited some people to my house the other night to watch a movie. I tried to pick one that was “clean” with good morals, and all that. We tend to remember films differently than they really are. This one was not so good. Sure, it had some good values in it, but was laced with innuendos of all the wrong kinds. About 20 minutes into the movie, I noticed that one of the guys had left. In another few minutes, his fiancé was gone too. At that point another sexual insinuation occurred and I turned it off. I went to go apologize to the two that had left. They bore me no hard feelings and understood this phenomenon of selective memory when it comes to films.
They were sensitive to wrong, to sin. They weren’t going to let it into their minds and hearts – even at the cost of getting something possibly good. They counted that cost. It wasn’t worth it. Where was my sense? People sometimes talk about Jesus often being found with the tax collectors and “sinners”. They talk about him “fitting in” with that crowd better than with the Pharisees and Scribes. I don’t think he fit in at all. I think he stuck out like a dove among crows. But that was why they liked him! He wasn’t with them doing what they were doing. The Creator-King was among the outcasts of his fallen creation to BE a message of repentance to them. What did he say to the woman caught in the “very act” of adultery? He said, “Go and leave your life of sin.” But he was there because they were receptive to him. He said to the religious types, “the sinners and tax collectors are entering the kingdom of heaven ahead of you.” He went where he would be received. He came to his own, the Jews, and his own did not receive him. No receptivity there. He then had to say, “Your house has left you desolate.”
People who lose one particular faculty of sense often find their others sharpened. A blind person can hear better than one with sight. A deaf person can see better than one with hearing still intact. I learned from my young friends who left the room, that sometimes you have to close your eyes to hear better. Bombardment of the senses can drown out the signals God sends. I want to be more receptive. I want to be more perceptive. I don’t want to miss what the Lord is telling me right now…
Christ never gave in to sin, and so has the greatest sensitivity to it. My sense of it has gotten dulled by giving in. This is yet another area where I have to trust something that he has and I don’t. I love the benediction in Jude… “Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.” That’s what Jesus is up to. I have to be tuned by him, like a virtuoso does his instrument - like a trainer does his sniffer-dog.
BJ
posted by BJ at 3:49 p.m.
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