Hurting Without Pain

Dr. Paul Brand was the first medical authority to say that the loss of fingers and toes from leprosy is due mainly to infection and injury. He showed that major tissue damage occurs because the patient loses the warnings of pain.

Leprosy attacks the central nervous system and acts like a shot of Novocaine. Of course, you're thankful for the deadening effect of such a drug before the dentist begins drilling on your tooth. But when you walk out of his office with your mouth all numb, and you bite a chunk off the inside of your cheek without feeling anything, you know in a small way what a person with leprosy is up against.

The parallel between the effects of leprosy and of sin is remarkable. Sin is not to be hated primarily for the agony it brings into our lives, though that's part of it. It is to be hated because, like leprosy, it has a numbing effect. It deadens our sense of touch with God and lets us live without an awareness of the "injury and infection" that slowly damages our soul.

Do you sec the seriousness of sin? It produces numbness in our spirit. This means that we can actually be hurting-yet feel no pain.

Lord, give us a healthy hatred of sin! -MRDII

Though God provides the grace to win
And wants us all to grow,
Unless we stay alert to sin,
Defeat we're sure to know

IF WE FEEL NO PAIN WHEN WE SIN, WE'RE WORSE OFF THAN WE REALIZE.