The Scarlet Letter

The world.  In John 16:33 Jesus says he has overcome it.  That we can overcome it too.  But what exactly are we talking about?  Growing up I believed "the world" was all the bad people out there who were mean to me.  All the people that didn't know Jesus and so were destined to a life of depravity and craziness.  Little did I know how crazy a person can be and still love Jesus, but I'll save that for my autobiography some day!  Honestly though, it's easy to believe that all the stuff we need to overcome is "out there", is because of someone else's problem.  I mean, I'm not interested in overcoming the whole world when so few people have an effect of my life in the first place.  I also don't believe I can effect the whole world. 

But if I were to boil it down to a world that only effected me I could see how much my action, or inaction of late, matters.  If I made a list of all the people my life effects, it may not be the entire world, but it's a pretty long list.  Every day the list gets longer, too.  Now, I'm not about to have a list competition to see whose is longer and how effective you are but it's just a thought I've been having.  If I'm not fighting the "evil people" out there, what exactly am I supposed to overcome?  There's another list for you.  Homelessness, poverty, disease, loneliness, hunger, the list of things that plague our world, just here in a 10 mile radius, goes on and on.  But nothing on that list is going to get crossed off if I don't first deal with a huge scarlet letter that I've been dealing with for much too long. 

Apathy.  Even as I write this I want to deny it.  "It's not that I don't care," I begin.  "It's just..."  What?  Sometimes I go with the I'm Too Busy response.  Sometimes it hurts to care.  I'd love to hear about your sad story but it makes me sad so I think I'll change the channel.  And the truth is, most of the time I do care but I don't know what to do or I realize my caring should lead to action and that's where sometimes I'd rather just offer up excuses.     

Let me be clear.  I'm not trying to punch your ticket for a guilt trip.  I'm just thinking.  Maybe there are other reasons.  Maybe I'm being too hard on myself.  I know I'm good at that.  I do believe apathy is sneaky.  I believe you can be ridiculously passionate about some things and have a blind spot when it comes to others.  It's easy to center your life around a certain purpose and forget all about the fact that there are a whole group of people you don't even see.  But even more than that, what good is amazing grace if, once blind, now seeing, I still do nothing?  Lord have mercy on me, a passionless, apathetic sinner!