I am working in my office with my nice mellow classical guitar Pandora channel providing the background music and it made me think about part of our small group discussion this morning at Bible study.
I told the other ladies that I had tried to learn to play the guitar four or five times over the years but never managed to get past that "OW! My fingertips are BLEEDING!" stage. Yes, the hours and hours I put in on piano practice were sometimes painful, but nothing like that! It is only those who persevere past the pain who develop callouses on their fingertips who actually get to the place where they can produce beautiful music from those finger-damaging strings.
We were talking about developing callouses today--but not the good kind that enable people to play guitar or perform gymnastics on the high bar. We were talking about the effect of callouses on our minds and hearts. Ephesians 4:17-19 - "...you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to the hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity."
Wow, that's quite a statement. A callous, according to Webster, means being hardened or thickened. Ephesians 4 says we are "thick-headed" because our thinking is futile (worthless), we are darkened in our understanding, and we are alienated from God because of our ignorance. Ephesians 4 also says we are "hard-hearted" because we have rejected God and His demands on us. Our consciences have become so dull that the damage that sensuality and impurity inflict on our hearts don't even cause us to wince. In fact, we are greedy (can't get enough!) of impurity. Now that's heart with a callous!
Callouses might be a good and beneficial thing when it comes to playing guitar or performing gymnastics, or walking barefoot, but on the heart and mind? Not so much.
"That is not the way you learned Christ!...put off your old self...and be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousnes and holiness." Ephesians 4:20-24
He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to God. Psalm 40:2-3
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