S6 E13 - Ripped Callouses (And A 3 Week Break)

I wripped my hand good at the gym yesterday. I have callouses that have formed on my hands from the barbells etc. - and one of them tore open deep yesterday. It's painful, but in time it will heal. 

Sometimes we can form callouses over our hearts, but God's Word has the power to cut us deep and expose that which is within. However, in doing so, God can bring us the healing that we desperately need. 

PSA: We are taking a three week break for our family to travel. See you May 8th!

#SetYourMindAbovePodcast

Transcript

What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day? 

What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths? Would you believe me? 

 Welcome back to season 6 of the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! My name is BJ Sipe, and I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. In our next few moments together, we hope to learn some of the most important lessons from some of the simplest things in life. Thank you for taking this journey with me.

Our health journey and changes of lifestyle that we have made over the last couple of years has us in the gym quite often, and with that comes a lot of wonderful things. It comes with overall improved health, new friends, and exciting challenges. However, it also comes with some other more…well, uncomfortable things. Like sore muscles, minor injuries, and this week for instance, ripped callouses. Let’s give some context for this before we jump into yesterday’s workout. Naturally, the more you work with your hands, the rougher they become as they are rubbed, used, and beat up. This is especially the case when you frequent a gym and use exercise equipment like barbells and rigs. As you are lifting and twisting on the bars, your hands begin to form these callouses at the base of your fingers. With less use, they go away on their own. However, with frequent use, they continue to grow larger, thicker, and deeper on your hands. And that’s all good and dandy…until those callouses rip. 

Thursday’s workout was straightforward but challenging: four rounds for time, with sets of 27-21-15-9 of hanging power cleans at 95 lbs. followed up by toes to bar while hanging from the rig. What this meant was a lot of twisting, pulling, and friction from the barbell and the bar on the rig in your hands. I have not been using grips for quite some time because I need some new ones, so I had built up some pretty thick callouses on my hands. I had made it all the way through to the last round with no problems, when I started my 9 reps of toes to bar to finish the workout. 1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…and rip. On my very last rep, I felt it rip. I looked down at my left hand to see about an inch long tear across the base of my ring finger, which was my biggest and deepest callous on my hands. As such, it was deep, and it stung like crazy. Thankfully, it was my last rep, so I didn’t have to stop my workout midway through. I went to the back to wash my hands and bandage up before cleaning up my square and wrapping up a few other things. It’s going to take some time to heal, and it won’t happen overnight, but hopefully before too long, I’ll have brand new skin once again in that place on my hand. 

My mildly unfortunate situation left me considering some very important things regarding both our hearts and the power of God’s Word. Let’s consider this in three areas: our calloused hearts, the deep cutting power of God’s Word, and the Lord’s intent to heal. 

First, we must come face to face with a shameful truth about ourselves: all of us can, at times, develop a callous over our hearts. We read in Ephesians 4:17-19, “Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.” Like all callouses, the ones over our hearts are caused by friction – but in this case, friction with that which is morally right and true. Perhaps the first time we engaged in immoral behavior in one thing or another, we felt a great amount of pain, shame, and guilt. But the more we engaged in that behavior, the less we felt any kind of remorse about it. In fact, it gets to the point that we don’t feel anything – having no shame on account of our calloused hearts. As time goes on, those callouses can grow deeper, and harder, and more difficult to penetrate. We continue in sin and unashamedly so. We can become like the people that Jeremiah describes in 6:14-15, “They have treated my people’s brokenness superficially, claiming, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they acted so detestably? They weren’t at all ashamed. They can no longer feel humiliation.” 

And yet, there is nothing that is impossible for God. This brings us to our second point, the power of God’s Word. We read in Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” God’s Word is powerful – but at times, also very painful. It can come through various forms. Perhaps a sermon. A verse that we read. Perhaps a brother or sister in Christ confronting us with the truth that we had been suppressing for so long. And then it happens…suddenly it hurts. God’s Word cuts us deep in the heart, piercing through even the most calloused of hearts, deep through the layers until it exposes who we truly are underneath. And that, my friends, is a painful experience. Similarly, we read in Jeremiah 23:29, “Is not my word like fire”—this is the LORD’s declaration—“and like a hammer that pulverizes rock?” That’s exactly how it can feel at times, can’t it? Like God’s Word is breaking us into pieces, pounding away at our hard hearts until we finally break and give up our pride. Is it painful? Yes. But is it worth it? Also, yes. Why? 

The answer to that question is our third and final point: God’s wounds are intended to heal. That may sound like a paradox, but consider the words of the prophet Hosea 6:1-2, “Come, let’s return to the LORD. For he has torn us, and he will heal us; he has wounded us, and he will bind up our wounds. He will revive us after two days, and on the third day he will raise us up so we can live in his presence.” God does not cut us to the heart simply to shame us or inflict pain upon us, rather all of this has a much deeper purpose. It is for our good. Because of our hardened hearts, we were slowly killing ourselves spiritually on account of our sin. We needed to be wounded, cut deep to the heart, in order to see the error of our ways and turn to the source of life and all that is good. Is that painful? Certainly, but only for a moment. Far better to be wounded for a moment by God’s Word than to suffer eternal condemnation because we rejected it! We read in Hebrews 12:11-13, “No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed instead.” 

My friends, we can have no greater friend than God – even if it means that he must wound us in order to heal us. “Better is open rebuke Than love that is concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.” (Prov. 27:5-6) I beg you, do not continue to harden your hearts. Even if it hurts, let God’s Word convict you and spurn you to repentance. It is only through this pain that we can find true healing that comes from our Father above. 

This has been season 6 episode 13 of the Set Your Mind Above Podcast – and I’m so thankful that we had this time to grow together! We’ll be taking an extended break from the podcast until May 8th as I will be busy traveling for two Gospel Meetings & then taking a vacation with my family afterwards – but be sure to tune back in then & catch up on some older episodes in the meantime. If you’re able to, go ahead and like and subscribe to the podcast and give us a good rating. Even more important, share the spiritual truths that we learned today with someone else. And more than anything my friends, always remember the following: know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.