The Conscience.

     When I was a boy my father told me a story I'll never forget. He said it was a Native American tale, but I haven't found anything to back that up. Regardless, there's something about it that has stuck with me for more than twenty years and I wanted to pass it along.
     I don't remember what I had done, but it was wrong. The real issue, the thing that scare my father the most, was that instead of feeling guilty for what I had done I was spending more time and energy trying to rationalize my behavior. He sat me down and told me that some people believed that when you're born, you're born with a square next to heart. In the middle of that square is a pin holding the heart in place and allowing it to spin. Then, when you do something wrong, the square makes a quarter turn. Sometimes, we even feel the tip of that square cut into our hearts as real pain. This reminds us of the hurt we caused in others and motivates us to seek healing for them, and our selves.
     However, if the square spins too often in too short a period of time, our hearts can grow calloused. When this happens, even though the square continues to turn, we do not feel it. This is dangerous, but can be fixed with time. If we go long enough without injuring someone else or, and this is what saves us most often, if a good friend comes to us and tells us we should be feeling our square, but we aren't, then we can allow our hearts to soften and we can allow ourselves to return to the way our hearts once were.
     But, if we have no good friends to talk to us when our hearts become calloused, then it is possible the square will continue to turn without us feeling it. If this happens too long, it wears the corners of the square down until they are rounded off. At this point nothing can be done. The healing words of friends will sound like poison, the helpful hands of family will look like fists, and the tears of those we hurt will look like weakness. After a time, the calloused heart that has worn away the edges of the square will heal; the callouses will fall away revealing a tender and vulnerable heart. The tragedy is there is no way to reach it. Nothing can touch that heart, neither pain nor joy, love nor fear, hope nor faith. This is the unforgiveable sin.
     I know this isn't my usual light hearted post but it's been on my mind and I wanted to put it out there. By the way, when my dad told me this story he actually used a piece of paper and tore the corners off the square. It really made an impact and probably prevented me from turning into an antisocial personality.