The Gravedigger's Cough

English writer F.W. Boreham tells a story about an old gravedigger who had a terrible cough. A visitor to the cemetery expressed sympathy to the old man and his cough. The gravedigger motioned to the graves around him and said, “There’s plenty here who would be glad of my cough.” His point being that even a bad cough is a sign of life. He’s right about that, but it is also a sign that unless a cure is found it could land him in a grave of his own. Then Boreham applies the story this way: "The torments of an aroused conscience are symptoms of spiritual vitality for which a wise man will give thanks on bended knees; but they are useless and worse than useless unless they drive him, in his desperation, to the fountain open for all sin and for all uncleanness."

What kind of signs have you been having when it comes to your heart? Have you had any heart pain? Maybe you’ve seen signs of a cold heart toward God? The love you once knew is missing. Any dullness or numbness of conscience? You do things or say things or think things now that at one time really made you sad. Not now. It’s like you are numb to those things.