If you live in a graveyard...
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If you live in a graveyard too long, you stop crying when someone dies.
As humans we are very capable of getting used to some quite difficult and horrible things. Those who live with pain on a daily basis somehow seem to learn to cope with that horrible pain and still make it through life. Nurses are sometimes known for their “inappropriate” conversations about medical situations they have seen. Many times just hearing about these situations makes everyone around them uncomfortable however because they have seen it so many times they have become calloused to medical issues. Police often see and deal with crime so much that they also have become calloused to crime that is around them.
Becoming Calloused to something is the way our mind and body copes with startling and difficult situations that we must face over and over again. Sometimes we as Christians can become calloused to things around us as well. We live in a wicked world and see sin around us all the time. We sometimes deal with people who are thieves, talk to liars, and work with those who are lazy. It can become very easy for us to become calloused to the sin that is around us. Sin should cause us to cringe, speak up, and recoil away from it. When we see sin it should lead us to a negative emotional response. When sin no longer provokes a negative emotional response in our mind, then we have become calloused to sin.
We can also become calloused to good things. Worship is something that God has commanded for us to do. Some of our worship is to take place on Sunday, yet other parts such as prayer is to be done continually. When we pray and sing so often, we can become calloused to our worship. We are to take the Lord’s Supper every first day of the week. However, if we are not careful we can become calloused to the meaning and purpose of the Lord’s Supper. Worship should always provoke an emotional response in our mind. If there is no emotion in our worship, then we are not worshipping in “spirit” as God has commanded. When there is no emotion in our worship, we have become calloused in our hearts towards God.
We can also become calloused towards sin in our own lives. When knowingly sin for the first time, it should bother our conscience. It should trouble us, leave us without sleep, and make us feel horrible about what we have done. When we commit sin it should provoke an emotional response in our mind that leads us back to doing right. However, the more times we sin, the easier it become and the less it will bother us. When sin no longer provokes a negative emotional response in our mind, then we have become calloused to sin in our own lives. 1 Timothy 4:2 says, “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” These people were to the point that their own sin no longer troubled them.
We must always remember the price of sin. Sin brings death. Sin separates us from God. Sin leads others away from God. If we remain in sin, it will destroy our soul.
If you live in a graveyard for too long, you stop crying when someone dies.
