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{"id":1386,"date":"2011-06-22T07:31:43","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T14:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richarddahlstrom.com\/?p=1386"},"modified":"2011-06-22T07:31:43","modified_gmt":"2011-06-22T14:31:43","slug":"sensuality-beauty-and-why-they-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/richarddahlstrom\/2011\/06\/22\/sensuality-beauty-and-why-they-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Sensuality and beauty\u2014and why they matter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cLove of beauty is taste. \u00a0The creation of beauty is art.\u201d <\/em>\u2014Emerson<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the\u00a0beauty\u00a0of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.\u201d<\/em> \u2014Psalm 27:4<\/p>\n

My oldest daughter lives in the Shire<\/a>.\u00a0 Kandern, in the Germany Black Forest, and the surrounding villages, are populated by people tending small farms, artists, and retirees. \u00a0Today we hiked up to a small castle ruins, and last night took a walking tour through the village. \u00a0The combination of being away from my day to day leadership responsibilities coupled with my newness to this part of the world combine to heighten my senses. \u00a0The landscape and the architecture captivate me. \u00a0Throw in a symphony of birds as music score, and we\u2019re walking through a sensual feast.<\/p>\n

\u201cSensuality\u201d is a word that\u2019s looked at with suspicion among Christians because it\u2019s used negatively each of the four times<\/a> it appears in the Bible. \u00a0We\u2019re afraid of being seduced by our feelings, and as a result we become afraid of our actual feelings. Our fear of \u201cthe abuse of the thing\u201d leads to a \u201cfear of the thing,\u201d which can, I\u2019m afraid, lead to a \u201closs of the thing.\u201d It would be like being afraid of becoming an alcoholic, and responding to that fear by burning vineyards to the ground. This way of thinking, this suspicion towards things that bring joy to our senses, becomes a sort of functional gnosticism, where we relegate pleasure of any kind (other than that derived from praying and reading the Bible) to a bin entitled \u201cof this earth.\u201d This division occurs in different ways with different people, and to varying degrees. Wherever it appears though, the affect is the same: \u00a0our capacity to both enjoy and create beauty is muted. Food becomes fuel. Sex becomes procreation, or worse, obligation. Architecture becomes shelter. Art becomes propaganda. \u00a0The world becomes gray.<\/p>\n

\u201cSensual,\u201d though, actually means \u201cto be pleased by one\u2019s senses,\u201d which reminds me that Jesus sad indictment of so many wasn\u2019t that they engaged their senses too much, but they didn\u2019t engage them enough. They \u201chave eyes, but don\u2019t see, and heave ears, but don\u2019t hear.\u201d<\/a> All of life is intended to be this rhythm of response to revelation, this taking in of what God is showing us, and this response, which will often be a response of reflecting back God\u2019s love of beauty by creating beauty ourselves.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s food artfully prepared, window shutters tastefully ornamented, the wooden interior of a village church, or gardens lovingly tended, the beauty of this little part of the world captures my eyes, and then my heart. \u00a0Do I pay attention because it\u2019s beautiful? \u00a0Or is it beautiful because I pay attention? \u00a0Yes. \u00a0Either way, the engagement with what\u2019s there is what matters.<\/p>\n

What matters next, with any sensual pleasure, is what I do with it. \u00a0Romans 1 tells us to give thanks to the Source, God, Creator. \u00a0Fail here, and sensuality becomes a drug. \u00a0Succeed here and we\u2019re empowered and energized to take up the calling ourselves. \u00a0We\u2019ve seen beauty and given thanks, so not only is there joy in our hearts, but when we get home, we clean the bathroom, or take a bit more care with the food we cook, or choose our words when writing. \u00a0Yes\u2014we\u2019re made for beauty; to both receive it with eyes wide open and hearts filled with gratitude, and to give it.<\/p>\n

There are countless barriers to living this way. Busyness numbs our senses. Fear that causes us to shut our hearts off from pain leads us to shut our hearts off from pleasure too. Dualism runs deep in our Christian veins, all the way back to the earliest days of the church. We\u2019ve idolized productivity, choosing quantity over quality countless times. These are realities. But they\u2019re realities that we must\u2014must<\/em>\u2014fight, so that we can restore small patches of beauty to our world. \u00a0Each creation might well become a tiny little doxology: praising God by creating.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just meals, gardens, sewing, and window shutters we\u2019re talking about. \u00a0Acts of justice, mercy, and love are also splashes of beauty\u2014but I could write a book<\/a> on that \ud83d\ude42 \u00a0 I\u2019ll add pictures to my flickr account<\/a> day by day, if you\u2019re interested.<\/p>\n

What are your barriers to seeing and enjoying beauty? \u00a0What can we do to encourage creativity and beauty among Christ followers?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"