Desensitized Danger

It would have been a smooth transition if I had remembered.

I had just taken a large steel pot of frozen lentils from the freezer, intending to thaw the contents over a low flame. Time was of the essence. I placed it on the stovetop and reached out to make room on a front burner. Absent-mindedly, I reached for the cast aluminium pan, so recently employed in the tortilla-making process.

With bare fingers.

There was no discernible difference within the first second or two – from touch to active lifting – but, once airborne, the searing pain associated with scorched flesh hit home and I dropped the pan without hesitation.

My son gave me crushed ice in which to stick my fingers, and he kept the ice coming as needed, while hubby grabbed the baton and tied things up in the kitchen. After an hour or so, the ice had done all it could do, so I applied lavender essential oil and aloe vera gel to minimise the likelihood of swellings that would eventually ooze.

It has been a few days since the incident and there is no swelling, but I now have a crispy (?) external layer on the index and middle finger of both hands, which will eventually be stripped away as the healing process continues.

Why didn’t I recognise my danger at first touch? Because I was desensitized by prolonged contact with the frozen container I had transported from the freezer.

Cold desensitizes.

I thought about this in connection with God’s declaration of His preference regarding His church:

I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!

Revelation 3:15, ESV (emphasis supplied)

It is easy to understand why He would prefer His people to be hot for we associate heat with swiftly moving atoms and molecules – a picture of vibrance and enthusiasm. But . . . why cold?

Coldness is an obvious problem that requires an equally-obvious solution. Frozen lentils may be thawed and revived under the right conditions, and sensitivity may be returned to cold fingers in the presence of heat. Chilling cold and loss of sensitivity present a very clear picture of need and, when a spiritual need is evident, the defibrillator paddles of the Word’s call to holiness, powered by the Spirit of God, can be brought to bear to attempt recovery and healing of the heart under the right conditions.

The Solution is clear for the desensitized, but the call to holiness is a shocking thing to senses long benumbed and the whole being jerks and recoils. With the stunning nature of revival comes the temptation to remain revived, but unreformed – alive but not abundantly so – because the fire that sparks reformation seems to lean toward the fanatical, and we prefer not to be that different from the world.

Biblical holiness unsettles and any move to disrupt the healing process by refusing to move forward will lead again to a chilled, desensitized state.

. . . the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

Proverbs 4:18, KJV

The way of the just is described as a path and not a station, for we are not intended to become complacent on this Journey. Our way becomes clearer, and our healing more complete, when we move closer to God. Not in a ‘new-agey’ emptying of the mind, but in an intelligent, reasoning relationship with the Creator God, rooted in His Word.

As my fingers continue to heal, I pray that God will keep me steadfast on the Journey, as He seeks to complete the work He has begun. Let’s keep going . . .

Onward, forward, upward.

Maranatha.