Building callouses
My training plan is coming along well. I’m not rushing it although we are less than 8 weeks from beginning this journey. This week so far I have logged in 17 miles of walking- tomorrow I will add seven more miles to have a total of 24 for the week. Today was a light morning with just two miles and some different weights to mix it up. I am looking forward to my early morning walk tomorrow.
So, what does this have to do with callouses? The first two weeks of training, my feet burned after treking about three-four miles without stopping. The balls of my feet were on fire! I was so sore, I had to rest them on the following day. It’s like guitar players who have to build callouses on their fingers as they are playing before the strings stop hurting them. But now..the callouses are there and my feet no longer burn…it’s a great feeling.
But callouses are not always good. The scriptures warn against a calloused and hardened heart. Sometimes we can become so desensitized to the pain and suffering around us and see so much, that it no longer pricks us to reach out. The opposite side is that we are so isolated or boxed into our own worlds…that we don’t see…can’t respond and thereby become calloused. On a moral level, we can travel down a spiral of sin to the place that we can no longer feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit…our heart has become calloused.
For those of us walking, let’s keep the callouses on our feet -but realize that as we walk on behalf of families in Alabama who struggle under the weight of poverty, who have inadequate housing, and need the touch of Christ-we must keep our hearts soft and from becoming calloused. I pray we have compassion-which in Latin means “with suffering”- we empathize and also do the means necessary to help.
Blessings to you and see you on the walk!
Matthew 13:15 (NIV) For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.