Fingers, Toes, And Other Places We Lose Feeling

This is what being naked in Antarctica must feel like.

That was, of course, likely a gross exaggeration, since I’ve never been within a country mile of Antarctica. But, your mind tends to go to funny places after you’ve been stuck in one spot on a perimeter for five hours in the dead of a New England winter — the same kind of winter that almost wiped out the Pilgrims and ended American colonization.

Hurry Up And Wait

I couldn’t feel my toes or my fingers and I was pretty sure my nose had fallen off about an hour earlier. The shivering was so bad I thought my chattering teeth would give my position away. I tactically mark-time marched to try and keep some amount of blood circulating, but it felt futile at best. It was only a matter of time before I became one with the frozen landscape. There were no more layers I could put on and no place I could go to get warm. Movement was my only option.

Surround-and-call-out was my least favorite of all aspects of SWAT. Hurry up and wait seemed more like slow down and die. And a lonely spot on the perimeter in sub-freezing temperatures was the worst of all (in baseball this position is called Left Out). Besides imagining what being naked in Antarctica must be like, I started considering barging right into that building and taking care of business myself. After all, encountering a hail of gunfire could only be an improvement.

Six hours, four hand warmers, one tactical robot, and zero degrees later, the house was clear. To top it off, after all of that, there was no bad guy to show for it. Chalk another one up to bad intel (insert sarcastic thumbs-up here).

Hurts So Good

The good news was that it was over and I could get myself warm again. The more I moved, rubbed my toes, and cranked the heat, the more my feeling slowly returned. A tingling, burning sensation replaced the icy numbness. It hurt, but it felt great.

The truth is that movement gets the blood flowing from your warm core to your cold extremities. Movement brings feeling to your numb parts. Feeling follows action.

Complacency Kills

This principle is true in your life, as well. We all have parts of our lives that can go numb. It could be our marriages, our finances, our physical fitness and health, or our faith. It’s true that the numbness can be caused by a cold environment, but it can be accelerated by a lack of movement known as complacency. Complacency is the opposite of movement and complacency kills. If we give in to the numbness then we will become part of the frozen landscape; lifeless and hopeless.

To get the feeling back in those numb parts of our lives we need to take action. We need to do something about it. It’s not just senselessly beating the air or flapping our gums — it’s a conscious, intentional, vigorous act. Like my cold, numb fingers and toes, it can take a while, but the feeling will return.

The Fire’s Out

Maybe the fire has gone out in your marriage and you’re wondering where it went and what to do about it. One day you felt like giving it a whirl, you tried, it didn’t work, so you returned to your frozen spot on the perimeter. There’s no feeling anymore so you figure what’s the point? give up, and become a statistic.

Feeling follows action.

To get the fire back you must build the fire even when you don’t feel like it. You must be loving when you don’t feel loving. There will likely be some pain involved, but know that the pain is the life-blood returning.

Duty Belts Don’t Lie

You’ve put on a few pounds and find yourself having trouble buckling your duty belt. (We all know duty belts don’t lie). The last time New Years came around you felt like now’s my chance and hit the gym for a while. A little later your belly was still there mocking you and your belt that has run out of notches. You don’t feel like going to the gym anymore and figure what’s the point? Hey, you tried, it didn’t work, so you give up and become a statistic.

Feeling follows action.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was your body. To get your body back you must be athletic even when you don’t feel athletic. There will definitely be pain involved, but know that the pain is weakness leaving the body.

Where’d It All Go?

One day you look up and your tens of thousands of dollars in debt and on the brink of bankruptcy or facing a lawsuit. Every time you sit down to make a budget you feel overwhelmed and quit. Next month the bills arrive in your mailbox with alarming consistency. You made all that money, have nothing to show for it, and wonder where it all went. You push the pen and paper away, figure what’s the point? and become a statistic.

Feeling follows action.

To get your finances in order you must be organized even though you don’t feel organized. You’ve got to eat that elephant one bite at a time. There’s going to be pain involved but know that the pain is short-term but the rewards are long-term.

Losing Faith

All kinds of bad things keep happening to you so you wonder if there is a God and start to lose faith. When circumstances drove you to desperation you felt like crying out to God was your only option, so you did, but things didn’t immediately improve. Without a quick fix you become jaded and figure what’s the point? You walk away from your faith and become another statistic.

Feeling follows action.

In order to renew your faith you must be faithful even when you don’t feel like it. You can’t see the wind but you can see the effects of the wind. Faith is the evidence of things unseen and it is moving and acting all around us. Your personal faith journey will be painful, but know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope (Romans 5:3-4).

The Proverbial Perimeter

Maybe your sitting on a proverbial perimeter right now in some area of your life, freezing cold, going numb, and ready to quit. How you got there isn’t important, but you’re there just the same. It’s easy to let your emotions get the best of you and to rationalize that doing anything is futile and to figure what’s the point? Don’t let yourself become a statistic.

Just remember: feeling follows action. I hope I wasn’t unclear.

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• What’s going on in your life right now?
• What is your greatest challenge or bone of contention?
• Have you given up or on the brink of giving up?
• Will you choose action or complacency?

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