Senseless over our senses …

One of the worst possible — and most common — ways of living life is to allow ourselves to be governed by our senses.

We human beings have five basic senses: taste, sight, touch, smell, and hearing. The sensing organs associated with each sense send information to the brain to help us understand and perceive the world around us. We’re supposed to use our senses to live wisely, but many of us allow ourselves to be misguided by them.

Allowing our senses to reign is to indulge ourselves without limits and is the polar opposite of practicing self-discipline.

Here are a few ways we senselessly submit to indulging our senses to our own detriment:

Taste. Many us, from the earliest ages, learn to crave what tastes good, and therefore develop a disdain for the less flavorful. The result is often a taste for what is unhealthy for us, or glutinous over what tastes good to us (again, whether or not it’s actually good for us).

Sight. Beauty attracts the eye, and it can also lure us to discriminate. Look at Hollywood … how many stars are old? Fat? Ugly? Or just out-of-shape and less than physically beautiful? We look for and pursue what is visually appealing. That isn’t automatically a bad thing, but it can be (check out my blog post, “There’s a time to look, and a time to look away …” here).

Touch. Touch, especially that of another human being, can be highly addictive and lead to sinful indulging of the flesh if not controlled. When properly guided, it can be a source of creating a bond that can last a lifetime (to learn more about the power of touch in relationship, check out my blog post, “Building a bond that lasts a lifetime …” here).

Smell. Our sense of smell can be used to warn us against dangers (e.g. a gas leak), to alert us about ruin (e.g. the smell of rotting food), or can be a mask to mislead others (perfume that camouflages something less desirable).

Hearing. When you note the number of gossip publications and TV shows, and the constant flow of gossip online and on social media, it’s easy to understand human beings have a penchant for listening to foolish things, coarse jesting, and conjecture that simply isn’t true.

Our own senses, left ungoverned, can misdirect us from that which is beneficial for us and glorifies God, to things that can be harmful to us and others, and results in sin. Fortunately for us, God has enabled us with the ability to practice self-discipline so that we don’t indulge ungodly desires sparked from our senses:

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline,” 2 Timothy 1:7.

King David uses the language of indulgent senses in exhorting us to get a full “taste” of the Lord, allowing that to become the desire that craves within us:

“Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!” Psalm 34:8.

Are you indulging the worst desires of your senses? Or have you “tasted” of the Lord and know the joy of obediently following Christ?

Scotty