Callused to it...

Have you ever had a part of your body (feet, finger or hand) develop a callus? It can be an unsightly thing to behold and perhaps even an intriguing wound to pick at. That crazy obsession to peeling off layers of dead skin, only to discover your true skin lies beneath it. You might not even recognize that you have a callus until you realize you have lost feeling in that area of your body.

I've once played around with a callus on the bottom of my foot (sick, I know) by sticking a needle-like pin into the skin to see whether I could feel the prick. I tried tickling that portion of my foot to see whether it would evoke some type of laughter or giggling out of me and sure enough, it did not. So many layers of dead skin had piled up that I was completely unresponsive to just about anything that came in contact with the callus.

I was listening to James McDonald (as my routine each day on the way to work) one morning and he was speaking on Romans 6 and he came across verse 5 which says,

"If we shared in Jesus' death by being baptized, we will be raised to life with Him." (CEV)

Pastor James talked about how often we get excited about the fact that Jesus died to forgive us for our sins and how grateful we are for such a sacrificial act. And while that truth is freeing, what's more is that Jesus didn't just stay dead. He rose to conquer death and as an act that exemplifies the power we possess to live a life free from the very things he died for.

To bring that thought home, I thought about the things I personally struggle with. It's easy to tell a lie. It's even easier to justify a lie by saying there's no harm in a little "white lie" and thinking it won't hurt anyone. Prior to trusting Christ as my Savior, I was powerless when an opportunity to lie arose. Justifying it away proved that something in me knew it was wrong, but deciding NOT to lie was not even a thought because the justification explained it away or the desire to say it was right there (why deny it).

But after trusting Christ to take away the penalty for my sins (that disobeying His ways truly brings), God deposits within us a power (the same one that raised Him from the dead) that frees us from the desire and will to do something as simple as lying. His power not only convicts us when an opportunity arises, it even convicts us when we want to explain it away. It bares a bit more heavily on us when we make the choice to lie anyway and (hopefully) encourages you and me to confess it and ask God for forgiveness. But the most exciting thing is, what was once a one-way street has turned into a two-way street. When that same opportunity to tell even the littlest of lies arises, we have the power to say "no- i'd rather tell the truth and face the situation" and with every decision, telling the truth and denying the chance to lie, becomes easier and feels more freeing.

Jesus' resurrection gives you a Spiritual callus (if you will) to the things (desires, words, attitudes, motives, actions) that once brought you pleasure but bring God grief. His Spirit empowers us to feel at type of numbness to lying, cheating, stealing, giving into our lusts, gossiping about others, cursing others and much, much more! It makes us unresponsive to such probings by piling up a dead-ness to those things. It causes us to lose feelings attached to those behaviors and attitudes, until we are immersed in consistent desires to please the God who loved us so sacrificially.