III-01 How to Make It Happen
(Overcoming Apathy)

A tramp stopped at a house to ask for food.  The lady fed him and as he ate she asked how he determined the direction he would go each day.  He replied, "Oh, that's easy!  I let the wind make my decision.  I never walk against the wind.'"

Letting circumstances make our decisions and always walking with the wind of popular opinion indicates apathy.  Apathy can show up as laziness, inertia, or boredom.  Apathy is so comfortable!  A minister once said, "I spend 50 percent of my time trying to comfort the agitated, and the other 50 percent trying to agitate the comfortable!"

The things that claim our allegiance, are not usually the worst sins nor the horrendous crimes.  They are more likely to be the good little things of everyday living that gradually drain our energies and waste our time.  Life is a matter of priorities.  Jesus knew this.  He realized that we tend to become distracted.  He said, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matt. 6:33).

Once when a young watch maker was drafted into the army, he took along his watch repair tools.  He built up quite a nice business in his spare time fixing timepieces.  One night the enemy attacked.  The watchmaker was busy with his work.  "Sergeant, I'm not ready to go.  I'm behind with these watches." 

What an excuse!  He was a soldier first of all.

Yet, like him, many of us devote our time to nonessentials.  Apathy denotes a willingness to let things slide.  Apathetic people are do-nothings and be-nothings.  Someone has said that the human race can be divided into three groups:  First, the great individuals who mean to do right and do it.  Second, the evil individuals who mean to do wrong and do it.  Third, there is that great majority of the mediocre who mean to do whichever is easier at the moment.  That's apathy.

Years ago, some arrogant young men got on a train, and settled themselves comfortably in a plush car.  The porter came and asked them to move to another.  They rudely refused saying, "We like it here, and we're going to stay!"  The old porter shook his head and said, "Okay, it's all right with me, but this car ain't fastened to nothing'.  It ain't goin' nowhere!"

To prefer comfort to accomplishment is apathy.

A newspaper journalist during the Civil War fought on both sides, He fought with the Union army until he got a good story.  Then he stood with the Confederacy until he got a story.  Trying to fight on both sides at once is apathy!

During the Gold Rush, a boat on the Mississippi River capsized and a miner drowned.  No one knew why since he was a strong swimmer.  When they recovered the miner's body, they found a belt around his waist weighted down with gold nuggets. We, too, carry things that impede our progress.

We, too, get so busy with seemingly harmless activities that we can't give our best.  Such fragmentation denotes apathy. 

The greatest cause of apathy is the inability to assess priorities.  Choices are all-important.  There is an old story about a lighthouse keeper on a very treacherous rocky shore.  He received a monthly shipment of oil which contained exactly enough fuel to keep the warning lights burning until the next shipment.  One month, a poor woman came to the keeper and begged him to give her enough fuel to warm her baby.  Then a man asked for a tiny amount so his son could study for an important test.  The keeper gave a little bit here and a little bit there until near the end of the month he ran low. 

One black night the light flickered and went out.  Storms arose, and several ships crashed.  Officials told the lighthouse keeper, "It's your fault.  You had one job to do-you were told to keep that light burning!  Other needs, no matter how important or how charitable, should not have taken precedence!"

Now, none of this man's choices were bad.  In fact, they were very good; but they weren't the best.  Likewise, our choices are not usually the easy ones between good and bad.  They are usually between good and better or better and best! 

Joshua commanded the obvious choice between good and bad.  "Choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served . . . or the gods of the Amorites . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Josh. 24:15, KJV).

Moses, on the other hand, had to make a much harder choice between the good and the better.  The Scripture says, "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin" (Heb. 11:24-25).

Now, he could have reasoned this way:  "I can be a witness here in the palace.  These Egyptians need to be taught about God."  This would have justified a good life, but Moses chose the better way.

Then, we see Mary who made the hardest choice of all.  It seemed a very admirable thing to serve Jesus as Martha did.  The world would approve.  Martha was doing real work.  She was giving the Lord food and drink.  But Mary chose to sit at Jesus' feet and learn.  For her that was the highest priority, and Jesus agreed.  He said, "Martha, Martha, you are worried . . . about so many things; but only a few things are necessary, really only one; for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:41-42).

Apathy is also fostered by succumbing to the "group mentality."  In America we have a saying, "The majority rules," and maybe that is as it should be, but the majority is not always right! 

Christians should be wary of crowds because they have a way of being wrong.  The majority ridiculed Noah's ark, the majority voted to stay out of Canaan, and the majority crucified Christ.  In each of these cases, the majority was wrong! 

Sure, there is strength in numbers, but there is also weakness.  We get a false sense of security from a multitude.  If everyone does it, we hesitate to oppose it.  Yet the heroes of history have often been those few who stood alone, put first things first, and dared to be themselves!  Every worthwhile thing in this world started with just one individual who pitted his or her life against impossible odds as Martin Luther did when he stood before a corrupt religious organization and said, "Here I stand; I can do no other."

James Russell Lowell wrote:

They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.

 John Oxenham expressed the same basic idea:

But to every man there openeth
A High Way and a Low.
And every man decideth
The way his soul shall go.

God's clear command is, "You shall not follow a multitude in doing evil" (Ex. 23:2).

Be your own person!  Make your own decisions!  Accept the responsibility for your own actions!

A poor use of time is another cause of apathy.  Lives are so short, at best, that it's not only sinful but stupid to waste them.  A survey estimates that the average person in a lifetime spends fourteen years in amusements; five years dressing; one year on the telephone; two-and a half years chewing gum; three years waiting and five months tying shoes.

Now, none of these activities are wrong or sinful, but is that all there is to life?

James recognized the brevity of our existence.  He said, "You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away" (James 4:14).

How much is time worth?  Well, on prime-time television, advertisements can cost a million dollars per minute.  But your minutes are worth even more than that.   A little poem says:

I have only just a minute
Only sixty seconds in it;
Forced upon me-can't refuse it,
Didn't seek it, didn't choose it.
But it's up to me to use it.
I must suffer if I lose it,
Give account, if I abuse it;
Just a tiny little minute
But eternity is in it.
                     —Anonymous


How then can we be victorious over apathy?  How can we make it happen when we'd rather let it happen?

First, find your talents, your strengths, and your place in life.  There is a niche that only you can fill.

Second, set goals and determine purposes.  If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it!  Focus your energies.  Don't try to do everything. 

We must not ask, "What is good?" or even, "What is better?" but rather "What is best for me?" 

Third, implement it!  Talk's cheap.  Action speaks louder than words.  Too many of us are always "gonna do," but never do!  Indeed, it's dangerous just to intend to do well.  Psychologists say that, every time we have a good intention and don't act on it, we become less likely to act on it later.  The intention grows weaker, and in the end emotion becomes a substitute for action.  That's tragic!

Jesus faced the temptation of apathy.  There were several points in His ministry when it would have been so much easier to quit than to continue.  Once, his family came for Him, but He refused.   The Scripture says, "While he was . . . speaking to the multitudes, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to Him. . . . But He . . . said, 'Who is my mother and who are my brothers?'  And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, ‘Behold, my mother and my brothers!  For whoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother' " (Matt. 12:46-50).

On another occasion Peter advised against going to Jerusalem.  The Scripture says, "Jesus . . . began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things . . . And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, 'God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You' " (Matt. 16:21-22).   But Jesus reacted vehemently, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's' " (Matt. 16:23).

Jesus always chose the best, not the easiest, path! 

Paul said, "I urge you therefore, brethren . . . do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is that which is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom. 12:1-2).

Apathy is unproductive and often deadly.

If we find our niche, set our goals, and act positively we can make it happen even when we'd rather let it happen! 
  (WC1813)

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