Are you cold? Of course, we all have been cold before that is why we have coats and gloves, but I’m not talking about that type of cold. I’m talking about your heart. What does it mean when someone calls you cold-hearted? (I hope no one has.) Webster defines it as marked by lack of sympathy, interest, or sensitivity. It is someone who won’t sacrifice for others, someone who doesn’t care for anybody but themselves.

I don’t believe any of you who are reading this has a cold heart. I would say though, we might have some lukewarm hearts. I am familiar with this type of heart because I’ve been lukewarm before. It’s the heart that goes through the motions. It’s the heart that is religious on Sundays, but not any other time. It’s the heart that will find anything else to do besides studying God’s word. (That one pesters me a lot. Satan sure knows how to help me find some cleaning or baking or Facebook using to do.) It’s the heart that will sacrifice worldly things only when it is convenient or easy. (Is that really sacrificing?) God doesn’t like lukewarm hearts either. He wanted to spew the church of the Laodiceans out of His mouth because they were lukewarm (Rev. 3:14-16).

The following is a poem titled The Cold Within written by James Patrick Kinney.
Six humans trapped by happenstance
In bleak and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood
Or so the story’s told.
Their dying fire in need of logs;
The first man held his back
For of the faces round the fire
He noticed one was black.
The next man looking ‘cross the way
Saw one not of his church
And couldn’t bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes.
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy shiftless poor. 
The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight.
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.
The last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.
Their logs held tight in death’s still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from the cold without
They died from the cold within.

They were lukewarm and ended up cold. Don’t let that happen to you. Don’t become cold-hearted. Don’t become lukewarm-hearted. Give God your whole warm filled heart. Care about others. Think about others. Keep your life in check with God’s Word. It’s time to get warm! Find some warmth in God’s word and amongst the love of those who care about you.

By: Kristina Odom