I spilled coffee on someone today. Or rather, my backpack did. When I was scooting in between the aisle to get to my seat without causing a scene, my overloaded backpack swung into someone’s coffee mug. I apologized profusely and sat down at my desk looking for something to wipe it up with. After a few seconds of searching, I thought, ”I don’t have anything to help clean up,” and though it was probably not the nicest thing to do, I said sorry one more time and turned around.
What if I told you that this is the danger of the Christian church?
The answer: you’d probably say I was crazy, but hear me out.
Love is mentioned in the Bible 551 times. It is pretty safe to say that our God is a loving one. It is also safe to say that he is a forgiving God, one who will forgive those who have committed the deadliest of sins. But I think that the one sin we forget about as the body of Christ is apathy. It is more than just ignoring the problems surrounding the church. It is hearing the cry for help and turning away. It is ignoring what God wants for our lives and refusing to grow in our faith.
It’s dangerous.
How can we get so animated over a football game or about the movie we saw over the weekend but be passive about God? How can we watch millions of Syrian refugees, whose families have been split apart and homes bombed and turn away? The answer is simple: we care about ourselves and only ourselves. It isn’t entirely our fault. This is the culture that surrounds us. America is a narcissistic, individualistic place where the emphasis is on me, myself, and I. This is my life. My time is precious. My education is important.
Where is God in this?
God is not a fan of lukewarm people. In fact, in Revelation 3:16 he says,“So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
Even being cold is better than being lukewarm to God. At least when you are cold, you know what side of the fence you are on. When you are lukewarm, you can say you are a Christian but never do anything about it. You say you care about the church but never get involved. Passiveness, lukewarmness, and apathy are inside of the church and inside of us and we need to start praying for God to heal us.
So ending question: Does spilling coffee on someone count as apathy? The answer is no. But what I chose to do about it was. After I tipped it over, I apologized but deep down, I was still focused on getting to my seat while coffee bled onto his notes. If I am being truthful with myself, I was saying sorry partially so I could feel better and partially because I knew it was the right thing to do in that moment. I could have pulled out a few sheets of paper to dry it, but I didn’t.
But we learn from our mistakes. We become better people from them, and hopefully we become less lukewarm and more like God.
And less prone to spilling coffee.
