I am amazed at the news I just read. A 20-year-old man was arrested at an airport in Brazil for attempting to smuggle cocaine out of the country. After examining the man, it was determined that he had swallowed 72 bags of cocaine.  Police say the cocaine was worth over $200,000.  He was charged with international drug smuggling and faces up to 15 years in prison.

I realize that I live a very sheltered life; but I cannot fathom how someone sinks so low that they would attempt to do this. I wondered if he was forced to do it or was this act of his own volition?  Was greed the motivating factor for this his man to do something so risky?  Actually this goes beyond risky; it sounds downright stupid to me.
I’ve been reading Larry Osborne’s book, Ten Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe.  In the book, Osborne talks about the danger of people “letting their conscience be their guide.”  The problem is that a conscience is easily recalibrated and if ignored it can become calloused, damaged or seared.  On the positive side, when we become a Christian and begin learning how God desires us to act, our conscience can quickly be adjusted to this new understanding of right and wrong.  But if we ignore the warnings it gives us, it also will quickly recalibrate itself to whatever we have decided to do.

For example, at first stealing a few cookies before dinner from the cookie jar will produce warnings and mild guilt because our conscience reminds us that what we are doing violates the rules our mom gave us.  If we keep stealing those cookies, it doesn’t take long before we don’t feel guilty anymore. Soon we feel it is almost a God-given right to have those cookies before dinner no matter what anybody says.  
 
If we listen to our conscience it will stay tender and sensitive; but it is easy to damage it and throw it out of completely out of whack; and when that happens, evil thoughts and wrongdoing won’t even register on the scale.  Technically our conscience is working perfectly—it just is mis-calibrated. Then every reading that we take with it will be wrong.  That is why it is not enough for us to declare that our conscience is clear. What we really need to do is to compare our actions against the unchanging standard of God’s word.

This 20-year-old man’s actions are an extreme example of the dangers of allowing our conscience be our guide.  I doubt that anyone reading this has ever done anything quite so crazy or life-threatening.  But I would bet that we have stepped across the line from sane to stupid a time or two.  Maybe we’ve drank alcohol and then driven afterwards.  Maybe we’ve violated God’s standards of sexual purity.  We might have neglected to listen to authority figures in life and instead done what we thought was best.  Perhaps we’ve believed our own propaganda (about our brilliance and other’s stupidity) and decided that we knew what was important and needed to be done without receiving wise counsel from mature believers.  Possibly we’ve gotten in an argument with someone but we feel okay because despite our anger and hateful words, our conscience is clear.

Just look at some of the words of warning and admonitions recorded in Scripture:

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond
cure. Who can understand it?    Jeremiah 17:9

All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the
heart.   Proverb 21:2

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.   Psalm 139:23-24

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on
your own understanding;  Proverb 3:5

My conscience is clear, but that does not make me
innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.  1Corinthians 4:4

Instead of trusting our faulty conscience, we need to examine our lives and set our standards of behavior based upon the infallible word of God.  We can trust that although we might not like what it points us to do and requires of us; it is true and the best direction for us to head.

Sanctifythem by the truth; your word is truth. John 17:17

Normally, I have a good sense of direction and rarely get lost. A few years back, I was hunting with some friends and we went to an area I’ve never be in before.  I was told to head in a certain direction and I would eventually hit the highway near our vehicle.  I kept an eye on my compass as I walked.  But eventually I had that uncomfortable feeling that I wasn’t where I should be.  Now my eyes were glued to my compass as I walked—I had completely forgotten about looking around for deer—I wanted to find my way back before dark.  I quickly came to realize that something was wacky with my compass and it could not be trusted.  I eventually stopped to listen and heard a vehicle travelling down the highway and headed that way and made it to the road just about sunset.  I found out later that the area we where were hunting had a lot of rock & ore that threw compasses off.  I found that what I trusted for direction was unreliable.  If I hadn’t realized that my compass was worthless and continued to follow it—I might have spent more time wandering around in the dark—lost but mistakenly confident that I was headed in the right direction.

So, I would encourage you not to trust your conscience as the ultimate guide in your life.  You could easily be led astray from the right path. Calibrate your life by the unfaltering word of God.  He will never lead you astray.
 


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