I am not a minister in New York City. I am not a minster in a college town or on a college campus. I am a minister in a small rural community in central Texas called Taylor. Here, the opium of the masses is apathy. Apathy as opposed to equally seductive intellectualism. Of course I’m speaking generally, as is necessary because as the heading suggests, context matters. Intellectualism has about as much of a home in Taylor as a Big Gulp has in New York City. However, it never hurts to be reminded, when on a tightrope you can fall two ways, left or right, but there’s only one bottom.
Apathy runs rampant in the mindset of the folks of this slow-paced community. This enthusiasm deficiency unfortunately hasn’t left the church unscathed. From my perspective, the biggest issue with this primary mindset isn’t foremost that it has made folks lazy in terms of drive or work-ethic. Rather the mentality has manifested itself as stiff-necked selfishness whereby individuals and families become all-consumed with personal, worldly success and fleeting luxury all the while willfully oblivious to spiritual, political, and societal realities swirling around them.
Now when I say “success” and “luxury” I’m not defining them as many americans would but I mean success and luxury nonetheless. In case you don’t know, Taylor isn’t The Hamptons. I’m talking about comforts for comfort’s sake—as ends unto themselves. What is affectionately known in our culture as the american dream.
Vanity
Context matters because we must first identify where we are in order to know how to get where we must go. It doesn’t matter if you know east from west and north from south if you don’t know where you are in relation to where you are going. We can all hopefully agree it would be silly to travel thousands of miles around the globe when what you are looking for is a mile right behind you. So, let pull out the map, open your story and have a look see.
So you have a good job, a nice enough house, a car. You are saving up for __________ (fill in the blank). You feel secure. You are constantly connected. You have your hobbies. You exercise. You know what you like to do on the weekends and going to church is usually one. You can’t wait for that soon to be released movie, book or album. You can’t wait till next week’s episode of ___________ (again, fill in the blank). You can’t wait for the next piece of technology that is soon to be coming any day now.
Vanity of vanities! On and on the circle turns. All is vanity. At the end of the day, the week, the month, the quarter, the year, if that is largely the extent of what our life is made up of, what have you gained? A new book for your shelf? A nice garden in your front yard? You can finally tell everyone you saw that movie? You’re starting to look and feel pretty good? You finally have the newest iPhone or a big enough TV or your vehicle modified just right?
I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you this but your money will run out and if it doesn’t you won’t be taking it with you where you’re going. Your trophy books will probably just collect dust and your highlighter marks will eventually fade. The weeds in your garden are more persistent than you could ever dream of being. You’ll forget the movie. Your cutting edge technology will sooner or later become obsolete and no matter how much TLC, your car will fail. No matter how much you protest, your health and fitness will soon enough fade, and you, like everyone else will die. Then what? Now tell me american dreamer, what have you gained? What will you have to show for then?
The Antidote
Cindy, a woman in our gospel community here in Taylor, was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. It has spread beyond her lungs and needless to say, the prognosis isn’t too cheery. Thankfully for Cindy, humanity has been around long enough to figure out life is terminal. It’s no secret, we all die. For us breathers, the numbers (since we’ve been keeping records) don’t look good, 10 out of 10 to be precise, with no exception to who you are or whether you smoke or don’t, your lungs at some point will draw one final breath and then never again.
Now tell me, if there is no greater purpose than to eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die, than why can Cindy not be satisfied with spending what precious moments she has left simply eating and drinking1 as if they were ends instead of means? Why has no one ever been satisfied with only that? Why the constant pursuit of justification? Her days like all of ours, have been numbered from the beginning but she is among a select few of our kind who have peered through a glass dimly and caught a glimpse of the hourglass with her name on it. She has been given a gift that we should all earnestly desire.
If you understand what I am saying, there should be a bit of a shudder that comes over you. Fear and wonder like when you stand on the edge of a cliff and look straight down. This is the beginning of wisdom. Until then, it really makes no difference where you are or what you are. There may be many branches but there is always only one root.
Now I am not too naive. I have had my hands in the dirt long enough to know what it’s like. Many more of you need to come to the edge and look down. Many more of you need to shake the apathy. You could always try a different pillow but your real problem is located a few inches south of that stiff little neck of yours.
So since a new pillow wont do the trick, let me suggest the only antidote that cuts to the root of the problem. The ax that must be laid to this root in your hard as stone heart, is being whetted by the Holy Spirit even now and He means to rid you of you. This is the single solution the Gospel offers, to take away the problem: You. Your puny desire. Your cheap imitation righteousness. There is no “Option 2”.
Joyful Purpose
When Christ ascended to the Father, He didn’t leave you a bucket list. He didn’t give us suggestions and ideas of what we, His followers, could get around to if we weren’t too busy with “real life”. Further, our Messiah didn’t leave motivational promises of an ever comfortable, trouble-free life. You, Christian, have been commissioned. We have been enslaved, granted the gift of joyful purpose. We, unlike the heathen, find joy at the end of our tether.
The Lord of armies has enlisted us in spite of us. The slain Lamb who is standing has broken us free from the bondage of worldly success and fleeting luxury. What’s more, is the Captain of our salvation, didn’t just free us from something, He freed us to something. In other words, we aren’t just dirty blackboards that have been wiped clean and told to try and stay that way. We are just emaciated slaves who have had their chains cut and prison cells unlocked. No, we have been changed. We have been carried away. The old is gone with all it’s pathetic desires and we have been made new. By the Holy Spirit the perfect work of Christ is being worked into our lives like leaven in a lump of dough.
Unlike the heathen who can’t find the end of their circular chains, Christians find joy at the end of our tether in that while we are relegated to the same life cycles (seasons and weather, want and plenty, sowing and reaping, age and decay, etc.) here on this earth, the difference is that we may find everlasting fulfillment and possess joy eternal in the here and now wherever we may find ourselves.
The Christian’s eyes have been opened and the mind has been enlightened to see and begin to understand that our vapor of a life on this spinning planet isn’t the end but the means. And a very important means at that as it will reveal what direction on the road we travel. It shows us where we are going. This time is only our beginning, our genesis, our introduction. As we pass from this life to the next, our story is only just begun.
Conclusion
Context matters. Where are you? Where are you going? The answers to these questions really matter. They define. They will tell something of your pursuits, whether they are vain or have purpose.
You don’t have to be diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer to live with a sense of urgency and to find joyful purpose. This un-apathetic mindset may not come as easy for you as it would if you knew you just had a short time to live, but enthusiasm and joy and purpose aren’t results of disease, they are results of dying.
Gospel transformation is like any other growth process, you can’t watch it happen but you can see it when it has happened. The Gospel is the antidote to apathy. If you are unenthusiastic or even fearful to evangelize and serve others in ways that matter eternally, the Gospel is where you need to go.
Questions for reflection:
1. Is my life devoid of eternal purpose?
2. Do I really believe that the way I choose to live now will affect what happens when I die?
3. Are my desires for pleasure and fulfillment too weak as to be satisfied with material, temporal things?
4. Do I obey (or know) the basic commands of Jesus and the scripture?
5. What is a Christian’s life expected to look like? What is a normal Christian life?
6. Do I trust Jesus enough to follow Him even if it cost me everything I possess?