Would I want to live with your conscience, could I bear it? I can live with my mine but could others if it became suddenly theirs?
Todd Beal
♦
Place a frog in the frying pan and gradually increase the heat. It won’t jump out but stay right there; continually adapting and adjusting its sensitivity until finally it succumbs to the temperature and dies. Our conscience is the frog in the frying pan of life. It gradually adapts and adjusts its sensitivity: compromising an ethic here, forsaking a moral there, justifying this action and making room for that thought until one day just before it dies, our conscience struggles… just a bit, and we force it to bear a little more. How far are we willing to go before enough is too much?
Truth Behind Reality 
It sucks to be a frog. Good thing the Holy Spirit is like a stick under the frog’s butt. Obey the prompt, or….
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Good point!
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I have always loved the frog/frying pan analogy, but am most intrigued by your initial statement — the possibility of switching consciences with someone else. Would my own conscience, which I’ve adapted to and grown comfortable with, drive a more righteous man insane within minutes? Would taking on a completely honest man’s conscience shock me with the immediate peace and calm, suddenly shutting off the mental and spiritual noise I’ve been living with?
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Once again, you hit the nail right on the head. And to add to that, what if we were to suddenly revert back to our childhood conscience, to our time of innocence, then once again return to our present threshold of tolerance? As you said, I believe the sudden jolt from innocence to exposure would cause instant breakdown; much like victims of PTSD (soldiers, abuse victims, etc).
If in our daily lives we would determine to personally apply this lesson, both in our interactions with others and in our private moments, we would begin to open up and understand our self, our fellowman, and God’s truth in a whole new light. Why: because we would become conscious of our conscience, and that changes everything.
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I think it is important to also recognize that our conscience is part of our sense of self. Do we know why we believe, say, and act the ways that we do? Are you stuck or are we willing to evolve and look around and listen to others so that we CAN continue to evolve toward KNOWING God and the person he created us to become.
Thanks for the prompt of becoming conscious (or more conscious) of our conscience, Todd.
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| I think it is important to also recognize that our conscience is part of our sense of self. |
This may sound strange, but until your comment I did not associate our conscience as filling that role. After much thought, I have to agree with you. What a great statement. I have always viewed the conscience as a tool, a prompting mechanism. However, it stands to reason that this “tool” could not prompt us if it were not intimately connected to our sense of self, just as you said. Further, the more we reject our conscience, the more we negatively alter our sense of self, effectively rejecting our self.
Does this strike agreement with you?
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You posed a heavy question. Sometimes it is difficult to live with one’s own conscience, let alone the conscience of another. We are not like Jesus, because when we confess our sins to Him, He will cast our sins into the depths of the sea, no longer to be remembered. Our conscience can really beat us up, if we allow it to, but when we realize that our sins have been covered by the precious blood of Jesus, the job becomes a bit easier, to live with the contents of our conscience.
I like the comment about our conscience being a part of our sense of self. I too, believe that to be true. In fact, I believe they go hand-in-hand. When we are in touch with ourselves, our conscience can guide us, as well as prompt us, to do what is right, according to our awareness of self, and our belief system.
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| We are not like Jesus, because when we confess our sins to Him, He will cast our sins into the depths of the sea, no longer to be remembered. Our conscience can really beat us up, if we allow it to, but when we realize that our sins have been covered by the precious blood of Jesus, the job becomes a bit easier, to live with the contents of our conscience. |
Isn’t that the truth! Over the years, I have put a great deal of thought into this topic. Upon committing myself to cleaning out my internal closet, owning up to my own actions (external and internal) both toward others and toward God, my memory sprang to life, showing its remarkable ability to recall anything and everything. It is one thing to address my wrongdoing, to confess and ask forgiveness, but it is quite another to work through those issues, forgive myself, then move on. I naturally tend toward self-loathing and self-chastisement. However, I find that through forgiveness from God, from others (if applicable), and from me forgiving me, those memories provide the very fuel for transforming both others and me. Once forgiven of these past deeds, I subsequently grow as I build previous stumbling blocks into transformational memories. Consequently, the sting of regret still remains but guilt disappears, allowing me to help other individuals who share a similar experience. Through repentance, forgiveness, and commitment to permanent personal change, God turns the worst of my bad into the best of the best for his right plan.
Regarding your second paragraph, I am happy to see your agreement with 4roots in that our conscience is part of our sense of self. Before her comment, I didn’t see our conscience as filling that role. I enjoy learning new things, and I always look forward to the fulfilling enjoyment that only truth brings.
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I concur! Great comment, as usual!
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Thank you, Paulette.
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This post actually has a similar meaning to my CS Lewis quote of the day!
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It took me a while to think about this. I would say that ‘the frog in the frying pan’ is the result of not adhering to the essence of your CS Lewis quote. The less we submit ourselves to God, the more room we make for sin.
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Oh and my dad wrote a song about a frog one time. It is about how we are the frog sitting on the yellow line in the road, and we are watching a 16 wheeler get closer, closer, and closer. If we play with sin, we will get hit.
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Absolutely. Sin is the ultimate gamble that never, ever, pays off. It always takes our life and gives us death in return.
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