“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities).
I feel this way a lot in our current day and age. We are living in the best of time and the worst of times.
We live in a time when technology makes communication with others all over the world possible. Technology and medical allows for lives to be saved and for individuals to live longer than ever before. Because of this technology, we celebrate premature babies that at one time would have had no chance of survival, now do survive and go on to live happy and healthy lives. Technology and scientific advance allow children to learn skills and task which we did not learn until we were adults. Children are exposed to computers from an early age, and when I was a child no one had a home computer. I learned to type on a typewriter and not a computer. We are living in the best of times.
Is it really the best of times? More and more marriages are ending in divorce. We are still at war and there does not seem to be an end in sight. Parents are afraid to let there children play outside. We are watching more natural disasters occur that are linked to global warning. We have to worry about being sued because we served hot coffee. We watch fuel prices rise to record highs. We do not socialize with our neighbors, and in fact we avoid them because “we would rather them not know us at all than to know to much about us (closing line of Desperate Housewives 10-28-07).” We live in a time when 39 million people globally are infected with HIV. We live in a time when the worlds wealth continues to be held by fewer and fewer people.
What are we going to do? Are we going to ignore the suffering, destruction, pain, terrible situations of our current life? Do we ignore our own active and passive participation in fueling systems, and activities which cause the pain and suffering?
This week I am exploring the Deadly sin of Sloth. Sloth in very modern day terms is when we begin to take the attitude of “not caring about what really matters.” In our culture it is easy to fall into the trap of sloth. We are so busy with our own lives, that we do not want to or intentionally ignore things that do not affect us directly. We want to just get on with our lives and let others pick up the fight and battle against injustice, war, and sickness. If we are not careful we begin to “not care about what is important.” We become slothful.
What is the Antidote for sloth or “not caring about what really matters?” Hope! And I am not talking about wishful thinking. This is not easy. Especially when we are talking about the issues which make this time in our society the worst of times. It is hard to move beyond wishing the war would stop and our troops would come home. It is hard to move beyond just wishing someone would help stop the spread of HIV or that a cure might be found. As Christians Hope is longing for something which God has promised to fulfill in the future. To hope therefore is to have a positive expectation (not a wish) about the future, based on trust in God’s goodness and faithfulness.
To hope as Christians does not mean we just believe or trust in God’s action in our world, but it also takes our action. With hope we begin to care about important things like, the environment, the war, the Aids Pandemic in Africa, etc, and then we are willing to work towards bringing about its fulfillment because we expect our efforts not to be wasted.
Hope awakens us from sloth. It moves us to action and making personal commitments to acting in love towards all of God’s creation. This is the hard part. Taking action… because we are not sure where to start or how we can make a difference.
That’s one reason we, as Christians, get labeled as hypocrites because we talked about hope and love, but some of us are slow to action. It is my struggle to find ways to care about things that are important, and then actively seek where God is already at work and then asking how can I join in. It might be that I need to ride the bus or train more often or recycle more. I might need to join the UMCOR in it efforts to provide aid to those suffering in Africa.
So in the weeks, months, and years ahead, it is my desire and prayer that with God’s help and through God’s grace, I might shed my slothful tendencies and step out in action.
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