Well-rooted and bearing our own fruit

A sensible person wins admiration, but a warped mind is despised. Better to be an ordinary person with a servant than to be self-important but have no food. The godly care for their animals, but the wicked are always cruel. A hard worker has plenty of food, but a person who chases fantasies has no sense. Thieves are jealous of each other’s loot, but the godly are well rooted and bear their own fruit. (Proverbs 12:8-12)

Good sense or sound judgment seem to fly out the window on some occasions. There you are, sailing right along and then all of a sudden, wham! You come smack dab up against a moment of decision, letting all your good sense fly right out the window, and you are smack-dab in the middle of a muddle you have created. When this happens, we may not think too much about it because we all fall prey to getting a little distracted, or just not thinking before we act. If this becomes the way we always live life - we begin to think our "sensibility" is a little warped - we might even say we begin to wonder if we don't even put to use the good sense our God gave us! Everyone admires someone who seems to operate in the realm of using their "good sense" - but when we encounter someone who cannot even use the good sense they were given, we might actually begin to see their actions as repulsive, or worse yet, we see the person as repulsive.

See that obedient person? Their decisiveness and wise actions just lead us to "marvel" at their obedience and quick judgment. On the other hand, see the individual who seems to not even use the good sense God gave them, and we might find ourselves looking down on them with a little bit of what scripture refers to as contempt. We are really saying we see their "value" as decreased by the 'not so great' decisions they are making. This is a very dangerous road to trod. Our "value" is not determined by our choices - it might look a little tarnished by the wrong ones we have made, but it doesn't decrease the value of an individual. Senses are really tools of awareness. When we use our senses, we have a discerning awareness and appreciation of the situation. It is the ability of our minds to make effective application of truths we know in response to what it is we are becoming aware of as it unfolds before us. You don't really think about putting the brake on when you see a car begin to fishtail in front of you - you just do it because you begin to "sense" there will be danger if you don't. The adrenaline begins to pump throughout your body, and you go into this immediate response mode because you sense the danger ahead BEFORE you experience it fully. Senses give us the ability to grasp or comprehend the moment. They become motivating because they enhance our awareness of either danger or good.

Since senses are closely related to perception, when they get a little out of touch with reality or "warped" by our "ignorance", we are in dangerous territory. Senses can be "twisted" out of shape, both by inaction and by wrong action. When we don't respond to the "sense" of danger, we might just head into dangerous circumstances totally oblivious to what is coming our way as a result. Probably one of the easiest ways for our senses to get "twisted" or "dulled" is when there is distraction in our lives. There are times when we allow what we once believed to be true to be "twisted out of shape" because of the influences of others, or even the lack of apparent consequences when we did not get "caught" by our own misdeeds. The Lord gave us our senses - he expects us to use them. One thing which might just interfere with us using our "good senses" as we should is our pride. Pride keeps us from making rational decisions on occasion. When pride keeps us from making the right decisions, we fall into temptation easier, sometimes even more frequently, and eventually the irrational, or wrong decisions become the "norm" rather than the occasional happening. Pride also has a way of driving away the people who can help us make rational decisions and draws those closer to us who are going to operate in the realm of irrational decisions. Surround yourself with good company and you probably tend to lean toward using better judgment - the opposite is true, as well.

Fruit might actually be influenced by the amount and frequency of good sense we exercise in life. Think of good sense as the absence of a stubborn decision-making pride - good fruit can be more easily grown when there is a teachable spirit within. Pride definitely hinders having a teachable spirit. Begin to think of good sense as the ability and willingness to make better choices. Our inattentiveness or distractibility might actually hinder our 'sensible' ability to comprehend the choices which are just in front of us. Just sayin!

Let's be sensible here

Sensible people keep their eyes glued on wisdom, but a fool’s eyes wander to the ends of the earth. 

(Proverbs 17:24 NLT)

Although I like the style of some shoes, I wear "sensible" shoes because I have undergone multiple knee surgeries and value the health of my knees more than the style I display on my feet! Despite the fact I may admire some of today's fanciest cars, I drive a very "sensible" vehicle that gets great gas mileage and has room for more than two of us so we can go places together. I enjoy rich foods, but choose "sensible" foods over the rich ones because they don't end up on my hips quite as quickly! "Sensible" choices are under-appreciated sometimes, but stop for just a moment to consider what "sensible" means and you might just learn to appreciate those choices a little more.

Sensible carries the meaning of someone having sound judgment - there is a basis to the choice they make that isn't just haphazardly chosen, but is consistent with other choices that lend to a solid foundation. The most important part of "sensible" choices is that the one making them is "cognizant" of some matters that lead to those choices - they aren't made without thinking. We find "sensible" choices are often labeled as "wise" or "intelligent" choices. They are the ones people think of as logical or practical. They aren't the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of choices!

I don't know about you, but I do better in an environment that fosters sensible choices and encourages sensible actions. It seems to "fit" best with what I honestly believe God sees as "best" for my life. Those times when I have launched over into the irrational side of "choice camp" have not ended as well for me - how about you? The irrational side of the camp is often missing something we might call "foundational principles" - there is some foundation, but it can be situational and oftentimes changing as fast as the weather!

Our eyes wander, don't they? We just have a hard time with focus. In the doctor's office, while having my eyes examined, they usually tell me to just focus on the green dot in the center of the screen. Do you know how hard that is when all these other moving things on the screen are occurring? They tell me to look straight at their left ear, and then my mind wanders to why their earlobes are formed that way, or how their earring seems to pick up the pattern in their blouse and now I am looking at their blouse!

What might not occur to us is that "sensible choices" are actually much harder than the irrational or "impractical", "irrational", or "unreasonable" choices we find ourselves making from time to time. It is all because one requires focus and the others don't! Sensibility is not easy - it means we remain true to the foundation - we don't compromise the integrity of the foundation just because we get distracted. Sensible choices align with wise principles - so one might think the key to making them is to evaluate the wisdom in the choice. While this may be true, wisdom isn't the thing always the clearest to see - it sometimes requires us to settle down long enough to actually hear the small voice pointing out the wisdom, or lack of it, in the choice we are about to make. Just sayin!