…the child of God has not total and final hardness of heart, but has a sensibleness of it, he feels and sees it. Total hardness feels nothing, but a Christian that has hardness of heart, feels that he has it; as a man that has a stone in his bladder, feels and knows that he has a stone. (Sibbes, The Tender Heart, 41-42)
I have never had a kidney stone. But I can say with a pretty firm confidence that I do not want one. This quote leads me to ask myself whether or not I grieve my occasional hardness of heart towards the Lord as I would grieve a kidney stone?
Does an absence of strong affections for Jesus cause me pain like passing a kidney stone would?
