The Parable of the Calloused Toe

The Parable of the Calloused Toe

Peggy B.

One Thursday morning, after Women’s Bible Study, my friend Cyndie invited me to go for a walk with her downtown. Of course I wasn’t wearing my good old Adidas sneakers which I walk in, but the shoes I had on were pretty comfy, so off we went.

We had walked quite a way when I noticed that my pinkie toe on my left foot was beginning to hurt. I ignored it. Soon it was beyond ignoring, so I just begin to try to shift it around each time I stepped, hoping it would alleviate the problem. By the time I realized that I was having a real problem, we had turned around to head back to our cars. Of course, we had to walk as far to get back as we had to get out. (I’ve always been good with deductive reasoning!)

When I finally got to my car, the poor little dear was hot and throbbing unhappily! I figured that the best thing I could do was to take it home and pamper it for a while, because in less than a week we were headed to Yosemite. Now I don’t know about you, but when we’re in Yosemite, we walk, hike and ride our bike, so you can see the writing on the wall, hm?

The blister that had formed on my toe was not helped by all the pampering. It just kept rubbing on my shoes and hurting no matter what I did.

We left for Yosemite and I found that my sandals and my Adidas both hurt my toe, but the Hiking Boots hardly bothered it!! I began wearing them exclusively and after a few days, I realized that my toe wasn’t hurting at all anymore. At that point I forgot all about it.

Several weeks later I was taking a shower. (Don’t worry Sue; I had already taken many showers before that ;-) When I washed my foot, I noticed that there was a HUGE callus on my sweet little toe. Now I’m not usually one who sees spiritual applications in everyday situations, but this one hit me like a ton of bricks!

It seems to me that sin in my life can kind of be like that. At first, it gets uncomfortable, but I just keep ignoring it and “shift around” my thinking so that it doesn’t really bother me too much.

After a while, it may hurt very much. I wonder what I can do to make it feel better. I try changing shoes…maybe if I go to church, or even talk to a friend about it I can get relief from my guilt. Finally I just stuff it back down in my comfortable hiking boots. You know, way in the back of my mind where it is under PILES of my normal activities where I can just not think about it.

What has happened by then? My sensitive conscience has been rubbed so much that it forms a callus, just like my poor pinkie toe. I no longer think about the sin, and I certainly don’t feel guilty about it. It just becomes a part of my regular life. I don’t notice that critical spirit, the nagging/gossiping tongue, the laziness or (you fill in the blank) that has crept into my life.

The only way that I could deal with the callus on my toe was to rub it down with an abrasive callus remover. Otherwise the constant rubbing of my shoe would have kept it there for a long time.

The callus remover for my heart, of course, is the word of God. As I spend time in His love letter to me, my heart is softened by the love, grace and compassion of my Heavenly Father. Then, I am able to see more quickly when I am walking with the “wrong shoes” on…when the sin in my heart needs to be dealt with quickly before the calluses can form.

Psalm 95:6 “Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker, 7 for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the sheep under his care. Oh, that you would listen to his voice today! 8 The LORD says, "Don't harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, as they did at Massah in the wilderness.”