A little of what you fancy

Here's a definition: Anything that makes you feel good is sensual. Like, a massage, eating chocolate, having a bath or shower, tickling, kissing and hugging, sliding your fingers on your arms and neck, etc. It could also be a nice setting or eating tasty food and drink.

Christians can be kill joys - here's a site that appears to rule out anything that is pleasurable, quoting  Ephesians They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity and concludes that we must be willing to die to our old nature, which includes sensuality.  And yet I find Christians who enjoy good food, or a glass of wine, who go to concerts one supposes because they enjoy the music, and so on.

Ah, I hear you say, it is over-indulgence that is wrong - God means us to enjoy life. Which I agree with, but it begs the question of when is indulgence "over"?  At the end of the day I suppose each of us has to answer that question for themselves. We know Jesus came eating and drinking, and they said of him, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. I find it hard to believe that he did not enjoy the good food he was presented with when feasting with, for example, Simon the pharisee. Although the story makes it clear that this was not his focus.

In his diary Adrian Plass writes: Found Aunt Marjorie looking through the TV magazines in the sitting room. After we had exchanged the customary kiss in which not even the tiniest part of my face touches the tiniest part of hers, she said, ‘I am encircling with black ink, those programmes that are unsuitable and which we shall not be watching during the Christmas period!’  Uncle Ralph arrives a day later and observes Heh! Good biz! Someone's gone through and marked off all the best progs! Is Adrian advocating a middle way?

The apostle Paul said ...for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. One gets the impression that he did not particularly seek either extreme, but was able to enjoy the plenty when it came his way. Which is a principle I sort of live by, even if I sometimes explicitly seek pleasure like buying a bar of chocolate or watching a movie or listening to a symphony.  Daft, get real, I hear some of you saying. But you cannot be both serious about following Christ and at the same time pay no attention to what you allow yourself to do or not do. This little boy says it all...

(video posted by Amity Diebold)