Apathy: The Silent Faith Killer

Photo Credit: Creative Commons

Start the Day Right

In the quiet of the morning I wipe the sleep from my eyes and greet my Father. “Good morning, Lord.” 

This may seem strange. To some, it may even be cause for a psychiatric evaluation, but I believe that God is there, listening, waiting, and longing for me to acknowledge Him in my life. 

Beyond this, I also believe that He is waiting for me to listen to Him and wants me to long for Him as He longs for me. This is my relationship with God. 

In the bad times I can call on Him and He gives me strength, but I need Him even more in the good times than in the bad. Why? Because in the good times I run the chance of forgetting; I run the chance of becoming apathetic. 

Apathy Leads to Hard Hearts

Apathy is a silent killer of faith. It allows us to ignore the obvious and dismiss the good things and special people in our lives without second thought. Apathy does not just happen. It builds slowly, like a scab across our consciousness. 

First, we forget to be thankful. Gratitude reminds us who we are in comparison to who God is. He is our savior, our healer, our friend, and our Holy Father. He has provided all we have need of and is the one who takes delight in actively blessing us. When we forget to be grateful we forget to acknowledge all God has done, all He is doing, and all He can do. 

Then, when there is no gratitude, we turn from compassion. We were once aware of the active grace of God in our lives, but since we have left our gratitude behind we now forget how far we have come. Now when we see someone who is desperate, lost, hurt, and in need of love, we are no longer moved. We do not feed the widow or the orphan any more. Instead we walk in our own righteousness, and say callous things like “get a job” or “it’s their own fault”. We feel superior to others and we lose the one thing that set us apart from everyone else: love. 

Finally, after the gratitude is gone, and the compassion of Christ is almost non-existent in our lives, then indifference to God begins. After all, we have relied on our good fortune and ourselves for so long, why do we need to acknowledge God at all? Perhaps, in our prosperity and wholeness we forget that we are truly poor in spirit and broken. We trade the truth of our need for God for a lie (that we are fine without Him). Apathy has set in and now only tragedy will shake us. 

We see it in the Bible over and over with the children of Israel. Recently we saw it in 9-11. For a moment we forgot our quarrels, we forgot our agendas, and we came together: grateful that we were still here, and we called on God for guidance and help. 

So I say “good morning, Lord” and I will be grateful every day because I can never go back to the way I was without God. I will strive to maintain an attitude of gratitude, a soft heart toward my fellow man, and a humble nature that says “there but for the grace of God go I”. I will personally and publically acknowledge the God of the Universe in every aspect of my life. I may sound crazy to some, but to God this is the sound of my worship. 

Join the Conversation

What are you grateful for today?

What it is All About...

My Favorite Tradition

Later today, after church is done, my church family will do one of the things churches do best, we will come together in the evening and as a body, we will break bread together. 

Not as communion, or Eucharist, but as a Thanksgiving meal shared with the people we have prayed with, laughed with, studied with and served with all this last year. 

While we chow down it won't be about the feast, though that in and of itself is amazing and worthy of some attention. No, it will be about the talk across the table. It will be about the 15 third through fifth grade girls who I teach on Sunday nights sitting around me, giggling and basking in the special moment as they eat pie and cookies.  

It will be about the woman who has battled cancer all year, who battles still, sharing her joy and sweet presence with the rest of us who love her and pray for her. About the woman who lost her husband suddenly and found herself alone just a few short months ago. It is about sharing a meal with a family who is about to embark on one of the biggest adventures of a lifetime as they soon leave to plant a new church of their own. 

It will be about the kid who just got saved, and loves my daughter in that sweet and peculiar way first loves do - sitting with us for the first time at a holiday meal. 

It is about saying thank you to the people who have tolerated my loud laugh and quirky sense of humor. To the women who have laughed until they cried because I got the giggles. To the women who have opened their hearts and lives to me and my family. 

It is about celebrating and saying thank you to one of the finest pastors I have had the privilege of sitting under. It is a time of thanks giving. 

You may be thinking, Thanksgiving is a few weeks away, or I live in another country and do not celebrate thanksgiving as a holiday. Both of these may be true, but it does not change the fact that we can take a moment, a meal, a day and be thankful. 

We can deliberately express to our loved ones, the ones kin by birth and those kin by the blood of the Lamb, our gratitude. In the presence of our brothers and sisters, we can share our hearts as we share a meal. 

Most of all, it is a time to thank our Maker, who is matchless in His faithfulness and generous beyond anything we have ever known. 

It is about honoring those who have done all they could to secure all we have. It is about an attitude of gratitude. 

Join the Conversation

What have you got to be thankful for? 

An Attitude of Gratitude

photo Credit: Creative Commons with limited editing done by Dayna Bickham

Thankfully 

This is how I want to live my life: thankfully. In active gratitude. I told you yesterday that entitlement is dangerous. I believe it is and this is why: because entitlement forgets grace. 

Grace is God's love at work in our lives. When we forget this grace, when we ignore God's hand in our day-to-day lives, we run the risk of living with an attitude of entitlement rather than an attitude of gratitude. We take God for granted and forget there is no reason except His love for His favor in our lives. 

So as you read this are you nodding your head in agreement? 

Good. 

Now here is the challenge: 

Examine yourself. 

Where can you show more gratitude and less attitude? Toward your husband? Toward your Mother-in-law? What about your boss, who probably isn't saved so they don't "get it". 

If I were to hazard a guess, I would say there is at least one area you could use more gratitude in. Do you know why? Because, we all fall short somewhere. 

I am preaching to the choir, believe me. 

So this is what I want you to do, and I am going to do the same and share my results with you. Today we need to find three things we are thankful for. Small, medium or large, these things are something you are willing to share and give a brief explanation why you are grateful for them. 

I will go first. 

My List

1. I am grateful for my kids. 

    As much as I complain about parenting, my kids are the greatest gift (outside of salvation) that God has

    ever given me. They bring me more joy than heartache and that is what I need to remember when things

    get tough. 

2. I am grateful for early mornings. 

    This is when I get time to read and pray. I get ideas for this blog, I write, I even just sit back and listen to 

    praise and worship music. These quiet times are rare and I have to discipline myself to get up, but they are

    worth the effort, every time. 

3. I am grateful for you. 

    I write because I am called to, but I am glad I have you to share this blog with. You pray with me, laugh

   with me, cry with me, and cringe with me. You make the job of writing more than a chore, you make it an

   adventure! In you I see God's favor and increase. You are like His little kisses to me. Thank you for 

   showing up everyday and thank you for sticking it out with me through all my hiccups and growing pains as 

   as a blogger. 

 

Join the Conversation: 

Now it is your turn. What are you grateful for and why? 

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Living with an Attitude of Gratitude

There is a Reason You are Here! 

God has splendid plans for us, plans full of hope and a future that goes beyond tomorrow, it goes on for generations. 

So many of us become trapped by our circumstances that we become bogged down by doubt and we miss out on what that something is. 

Do Not Miss Out! 

It may be because you are hung up on a lie that you were told as a child- “You’re not good enough” or maybe because you don’t have all the physical advantages someone else may have, like money or good looks, or maybe because you feel like time is running out for you because you are getting too old to be doing those amazing things that you have always dreamed of, and now think it is too late for...

Whatever it is that is holding you back it is never too big for our Father. 

Look At David

David was the youngest kid in his family, always stuck with the stinky jobs like looking after the sheep, and being a messenger for his dad, hauling water and food to the battle field for his brothers to have and then being mocked when he wanted to fight for God against Goliath and the Philistines. He was young, he was small, and he was not what people thought of as ‘king” material, but God had a plan for David! God has a plan for you too. Do not doubt it.  

From a shepherd boy to a king, David was a delight to God because no matter what was going on in David’s life, he was humble and grateful. God says David was a man after his own heart. David wasn’t perfect, but he was quick to repent and always thankful for all God had done. 


As he grew as a king, God’s favor was on him and stability came to the land. David began to realize that God had prospered him with houses and wives and children and all he could desire, but while David and his family lived in a wonderful house, God (the Arc of the Covenant) dwelled in a tent.  

God Has A Sense of Humor! 

If you ever doubt our Father has a sense of humor, don’t doubt it anymore. You can hear God chuckle at David in this passage: much like we giggle at our children when they are being cute.

2 Samuel 7 (The Message)4-7 But that night, the word of God came to Nathan saying, "Go and tell my servant David: This is God's word on the matter: You're going to build a 'house' for me to live in? Why, I haven't lived in a 'house' from the time I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt until now. All that time I've moved about with nothing but a tent. And in all my travels with Israel, did I ever say to any of the leaders I commanded to shepherd Israel, 'Why haven't you built me a house of cedar?'

God goes on to tell David that His true house will be established through David, and through the generations God will bear a son from David’s line that will seal both His love and David’s line forever. That son was Jesus. When the prophet Nathan told David all God had said this is what happened next:

18-21 King David went in, took his place before God, and prayed: "Who am I, my Master God, and what is my family, that you have brought me to this place in life? But that's nothing compared to what's coming, for you've also spoken of my family far into the future, given me a glimpse into tomorrow, my Master God! What can I possibly say in the face of all this? You know me, Master God, just as I am. You've done all this not because of who I am but because of who you are—out of your very heart!—but you've let me in on it.

Can you see it? 

David was humble and he was thankful. He was excited and he did not doubt. He knew that God’s word was established and David was tickled pink to be let in on the secret plans God had for his family and his descendants. (We have talked about the secret things of God before. For that click here)

Having an attitude of gratitude is important. In the little and the small things acknowledge God and He will direct us. Do not let the chance to give God the glory pass by you. When we are thankful we are humble, and when we are humble, we are usable. Now we just have to get out of God’s way and obey, but that will be tomorrow’s blog.

Be blessed and be a blessing and remember thank is a verb. 
What are you thankful for?