Apathy: The Silent Faith Killer

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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. 

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Gardening 101- It is all about the soil!

Seeds I started in my kitchen are ready too plant, but my garden is not ready.

It is spring and I am starting seedlings for my garden. These seedlings have already had some challenges- mainly in the form of my daughter's cat, who thought my zinnias were his new litter box. 

The zinnias are gone, but I still have hope for the green beans, squash, sunflowers, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, eggplants, bell peppers and herbs. 

Alex the Cat

But I have a problem beyond Alex the cat. I have all these seedlings and I haven't prepared the ground yet. Weeds need to be plucked and the ground needs to be turned. I am running behind. 

So, of course, as I ponder the problem God seems to line up things that remind me of the spiritual parallels between gardening and us. 

We are a garden, and we are expected to bear fruit. 

The parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-23 is very clear about the importance of good soil. Jesus talks about 4 types of soil: road, gravel, weeds, and good earth. 

The Road is a person who hears about God, but won’t receive God, so when the enemy comes, the seed of God’s words are easily corrupted and eaten. 

The Gravel, or road side, hears the word and immediately responds, but there is not enough depth there. This is a person that lives by emotion and often is the type of person that flits from one fad to another. When the emotional high wears off, and trouble or testing comes, then they have nothing to show for it, because it was about the experience of the sowing and not about the maintaining or the growing. 

The Weeds are worry. Man, so many of us get caught here. I have before. Weeds seem to be able to grow just about anywhere, but they grow just as well in what could be good ground as they do in the gravel or in a tiny crack in the road. Weeds are hearty things that flourish under even the most inhospitable conditions. 

Weeds are the worries of life. Bills, family, and unexpected obstacles are the worries we allow to grow in our lives. Another class of weeds is false expectations. Jesus did not promise a life full of rainbows and unicorns. Life would not be suddenly perfect because you asked God to rule and reign in your heart. That assures your salvation, but the world is still a broken place. 

When we get wrapped up in the would-a should-a could-a, or we get fixated on desiring more than we are ready for, the weeds of false expectation begin to choke out our peace, and contentment, then they rob us of our faith. These weeds need to be plucked out at every opportunity. 

Who has gained one extra day of life because he worried? No one has. Worry is a faith killer, and faith in action is a weed killer. Remember what God says, He is our provider and He gives every good and perfect gift. Doing this allows us to begin to let go of worry and keep our hearts from fear and disappointments. 

Prayer and submission to God is the way to pluck out weeds. Prayer and supplication to God displace worry in our lives. Focus on Christ as the Center of provision and worry will have no place to take root. 

The final type of soil is Good Ground. 

Isaiah 62:10 says “Go through the gates, prepare the way for the people, cast up the highway, gather up the stone, and lift up a banner for the people. “ 

Un-tilled soil is rocky soil. The stones need to be removed, just like the weeds in our lives. Stones are those things we stumble over. Offenses, false-doctrines, and unbelief are examples of stones. 

When these are removed from our lives, and we continually pull the weeds from our hearts, the soil is ready for sowing. As the word falls verse by verse, seed by seed onto our hearts, it takes root, grows, it gets watered by the Holy Spirit and bears fruit. 

My garden needs a lot of work to get ready for these seedlings. My heart needs some preparation to receive what God has for me too! I want a harvest that is beyond my wildest dreams, and that means I have to prepare the soil. Time to put on the gloves and get to work!