Waking Up

When our hand or foot has gone numb, we say that it is "asleep." Getting the feeling to come back or getting it to "wake up" is not always the most pleasant experience. If our foot is asleep and we are trying to get it to wake up, we will first start to feel the stinging sensation of pins and needles as our nerves begin to function properly. This process is not very streamlined and we have to be careful about putting weight on our foot since different parts are waking up more quickly than others. In the scriptures it talks about how we can become "past feeling" the promptings of the Spirit. If our heart has become numb or "asleep", than just like any other part of the body that has become numb, we can, with a little effort and a little unpleasantness, wake it up. If we have not repented in a while, we may feel pins and needles of guilt as we slowly awaken our heart to the reality of our situation. Certain habits or behaviors that have become completely normal will start to prick our conscience as we try to once again feel the Spirit. Just like we have to be careful of putting too much weight on a foot that is still half asleep, we have to be careful of demanding too much of our heart that is still waking up. We're going to miss or misinterpret or ignore many spiritual promptings while we are in the middle of walking up our heart. We need to be patient. The feeling will come back fully soon enough and our capacity to receive and follow spiritual inspiration will get more and more refined as we continue to repent and wake up our heart.