Often, men work hard to expand their exterior life, but not their interior life. They grow like a pyramid and then things happen to them that they can’t withstand and they topple over. Eugene Peterson wrote a forward to the book Water My Soul, which is about expanding your interior life.

The Lie: There is nothing worth giving yourself for.

The Truth: You were born to live a life of consequence.

The Question: What kind of life are you choosing to live? Retreating, aiming for comfort, just a mere spectator…or living a life of consequence?

In John 10:10, Jesus says, “I have come that you might have life…life to the FULL…Overflowing.” Are there holes in the bucket of your life that drain away life and produce apathy?

Living with Sin: 

One hole, one common cause of apathy, is the choice to walk in sinful disobedience to God’s word in some area of life. If we are unremorseful (we don’t really think our sin is a big deal) or unrepentant (we don’t really want to turn around/change our behavior), then we likely will find ourselves feeling cold, distant, and disinterested. Our experience of apathy may be God allowing our fellowship with him to cool in order to snap us out of our sinful stupor and draw us to him in repentance. David writes in Psalm 32 about the hole in his bucket:

When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Psalm 32:3-4

David interprets the emotional, physical, and spiritual exhaustion he feels as the result of his silence regarding his sin. In a similar way, the source of our apathy may not be as mysterious as we might think. When we choose sin, it’s like shooting a hole in our bucket of life. Joy, life, adventure drain out – often replaced with apathy. 

Practices:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. Psalm 1:1-3

We have to stop some things and start other things. We can have practices as Christians that are difficult, but not complicated. The first and most important practice would be to read your Bible, know God’s word. In Genesis 3, the very first sin was questioning God’s word. Moses says in Deuteronomy 30:11-14,

For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascent to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.”

Choose life. It’s not very complicated, but it’s hard. It’s hard because you have to set your alarm and say no to your body that wants another 15 minutes of sleep. It’s not complicated. It’s saying, “I’m going to read for 15 minutes and meditate on what I read and pray that these words would be a guide for me.” It’s not complicated, it doesn’t take your whole day, but it’s very hard to do it. 

In II Timothy 3, Paul tells Timothy the word of God is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be equipped for every good word. This is as clear as it gets. The word is useful to get you moving in the right direction. 

Yet we so easily choose the trivial over the truth. In the book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman contrasts the visions of George Orwell in 1984 and Aldous Huxley in Brave New World. 

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much information that we would be reduced to apathy. Orwell feared the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture. 

Huxley was more accurate. We are drowning in a sea of irrelevance. The author of Fighting Shadows says, 

The average young person racks up 10,000 hours of gaming by the age of 21. That’s almost as much time as they spend in a classroom during all of middle and high school. 

What do you delight and meditate on? When have you experienced God’s word producing good fruit in your life? So often, our poor practices are connected to the wrong people. People who lead us away from God rather than toward God so that we become apathetic in the development of our spiritual life. 

People: 

In the very first Psalm, what’s the first piece of advice? Be careful about the people you choose to walk with, you will eventually make their way your home! It’s progressive – walk, stand and then sit. Paul echoes this in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good character.” Living according to the world – captured by technology and trivia – is like living in a cave. You must crawl out! Remember I Samuel 14 where Jonathan crawls out of the cave of fear/apathy of his father Saul. If Jonathan stays in the cave, he will become like Saul. 

The right people can help you crawl out. We must be careful to choose people who will surround us and help us when we find ourselves drifting away. 

Let us consider how to stir one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together. Hebrews 10:24-25

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17

There’s a great documentary called 14 Peaks about a sherpa with an incredible lung capacity who decides to climb the 14 highest peaks in the world in one season. He assembles a great team that goes with him. They had a lot of hard times and he had to have the right team to get to the top. Take a look at this short clip. 

We must stay tied together, we must encourage one another when a storm of apathy hits. When life seems meaningless and we want to crawl into a comfortable cave, we must have the right team.

Questions: 

1. Process the Muir story and the “refusal to become a spectator of life.” What kind of life are you choosing to live? Becoming a spectator or living a life of consequence? 
2. How have you experienced sin drain out the joy in your life? 
3. Practice and people: When have you experienced God’s word producing good fruit in your life? What people do you have connected to your life to help pull you out of the cave of fear and into a walk with God? 

Iron Leadership Materials: 

• The Daily Office 4-11-25
• IL Handout – 4-13-25