As I got out of the shower the other day I looked at my hands. I guess I wanted to make sure they were clean, but all I noticed was the callous I had developed in Honduras was now just a faint trace. Like a mark made by some invisible ink it was only noticeable when wet.  

At one time in my life, a week of digging would not have given me a blister – that was when I was used to manual labor. But today my fingers do key strokes and rarely grip a shovel or pick for more than a few minutes. So friction created heat, a blister formed to protect my sensitive skin, and then it burst. The sore scarred over to create a mini-armor guarding my hand against more abuse.

But as I thought about the disappearing callous on my hand I was struck with fear, was the callous on my hand being replaced by a new one on my heart? Like a callous on the hand, heart calluses also form armor that keeps things out that could trouble a sensitive heart.

As a callous on the hand begins to fade,
a new one on the heart is easily made.

If lessons in the flesh can’t penetrate my heart,
Then I’m safe from change, no new course to chart.
If I can make a new friend, next week forget his pain,
My hard heart has done it’s work so I won’t go insane.

I’d lose my mind from solidarity with a brother in oppression
If a comfort-seeking is my boss and has me stressin’
If I refuse to loose my life – to find my soul
Then I must forget his struggle to stay whole.

If Yah speaks to me, but I do not obey
Heart hardening follows with out delay

A callous on the hand fades when the work is done
But on the heart they’ll make sure it’s not begun.

I’m convinced this is one reason most “so-called-Christians” would rather argue about theology than love their neighbor in need. Talk is cheap – love is costly.

1 John 3:16 – 19This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This

 then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence.