Apathy

Apathy. That’s a word that I’ve let define me. And yet, I’ve never really thought it fit me. You see, I’m rather an optimist at heart. I get all excited about stuff— WAAAY too excited. My hopes get as high as The Superman at Six Flags. And when hopes get that high, they are bound to crash at some point. When they do, I find myself being quite disillusioned. Cynical, even. That cynicism quite naturally leads to apathy. After all, who likes to try again when they just “know” that things won’t work out? For most of my life, this vicious cycle has had a death grasp upon me. It has not only affected my ability to complete projects or just practical everyday tasks, but it also choked out many things pertaining to my relationships and how I handled conflict. To be perfectly honest, I’ve not fully untangled myself from its grip. But I’m working on it.

Until the past few weeks, I honestly didn’t clearly see that this apathy affected so many areas of my life. It took some pretty rough days involving some conflicts with others to show me just that.

My apathy rarely takes on the form of “I don’t care how others feel, so I’ll do whatever...” so I didn’t even really see my apathy as something that was wrong.

Then the previously mentioned incidents occurred and I began to understand just how unsuspectingly dangerous my apathy truly is. It is dangerous because often in conflicts I will get discouraged or scared and therefore I don’t stand up for others when I should. I have often chosen to stay silent when others were loudly proclaiming their rudeness, just to keep the peace and I viewed it as a good thing (don’t get me wrong, this has its time and place) since I wasn’t contributing to the situation, right?

For some reason, the past few weeks this verse kept popping into my heart: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” So I began to ask myself, what does that look like? What does it look like to be overcome by evil? Does it look like clamping my mouth shut when others make fun of someone less fortunate? Does it look like making rude jabs back to prove a point?

On the flip side, what does it look like to overcome evil with good?

Maybe it’s the in-between. Spreading kindness and love and compliments and hugs to others. Taking someone aside privately and humbly sharing that what they did was hurtful. Choosing to respond with encouragement rather than retaliate with enmity.

Because if I haven’t learned anything else, I’m learning that as a believer, you CANNOT be satisfied with being apathetic. You MUST be proactive. You can’t just sit idly by while people are being trampled, but you must rather “open your mouth for the cause of all appointed to die” (whether that be physically, emotionally, spiritually). Overcoming evil with good isn’t a passive thing. It requires, no, demands action. Jesus demands it when He says, “you are either for Me or against Me.” There is no middle ground. No room for apathy. No room for passivity. No room for autopilot.

Romans 12:9 says it so well, “let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be kindly affectionate toward one another with brotherly love.” That’s some strong language people! And certainly devoid of apathy!

In order for good to overcome, it must fight. It must reach a helping hand. It must enfold with its loving arms.

When we have the Living and Active Word in us, how on earth can we think that we are excused to spend our lives being anything but living and active?!