How Did I Get Here?

Have you ever had that moment driving where you got to your destination and don't fully remember how you got there? Most of the time that happens because we travel a route so much, it just becomes a part of life. We may be focused or thinking about other things and our destination or the route we are on is not even a part of our thoughts. I have done this a few times and it is scary.

What if we can do this spiritually?

I was reading through the book of Jeremiah and came across a very interesting set of verses:

 "Yet my people have forgotten me. They burn incense to worthless idols that make them stumble in their ways on the ancient roads, and make them walk on new paths, not the highway. They have made their land a horror, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by it will be appalled and shake their heads. I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind. I will show them my back and not my face on the day of their calamity" (Jer. 18:15-17)

God is essentially saying to His people through Jeremiah that spiritually, Israel has found themselves in a progression of spiritual apathy that finalized into turning away from God. Today we read and hear about so many young people "walking away" from the Christian faith or the Church. I admit that much of the reasoning is nuanced and not as black and white as some might want to paint the picture to be. However, I think the progression here in Jeremiah can be a factor to what we see today. Some of the factors are the personal responsibility of individuals and some the passing down of a lackluster faith. So, here are some steps I see that we can fall into that leads to spiritual apathy or walking away.

"Forgotten God..."

The beginning of verse 15 God says the people have forgotten Him. How does one forget God? Especially, one as personal as the God of Israel is and interacts with them? I think a good explanation could be the people are no longer being informed by the Person and Word of God. People can forget God as we allow our lives to become distracted with so much. I am more convinced that people in and out of churches are constantly consuming copious amounts of information without much reflection or processing. Even more, that information we consume is less about God and His way and slowly we become less concerned about God and His Word. Thus, our hearts and minds are more informed by whatever social media tells us, what Fox News or CNN informs us to believe, or whatever the next big entertainer "preaches" as the "flavor of the month" truth.

I remember much of life before cell phones, social media, technology like we see today, and we still found ourselves filling our lives with other things than God. However, it feels like there was more time for me to think and reflect on life. Perhaps my experiences were just different. I used to paint apartments for a seminary as a teen and young adult for several years. It was a great job because I would spend many hours alone. I would have music going, but I remember having time to think about life. In fact, it was in those years that I eventually discovered a call to ministry by God.

What consumes your time the most? Does it replace time thinking, interacting with the Person and Word of God? If so, you might be on the first step to spiritual apathy or walking away.

"Burn incense to worthless idols..."

Once our lives are less informed by the Person and Word of God and perhaps more informed by other things, action follows what informs us. The people of God became informed by the religions around them, the false gods that were worshiped. The result was taking action to worship those gods. So, what primarily informs our hearts and minds leads to dominating actions. Essentially, it is worship of something even if indirectly. I remember when I was younger how I filled my life with so much entertainment. Movies, music, gaming, etc became a staple in my life. They were not bad in of themselves, but I had a moment of clarity when my friends and I spent 12 hours one Saturday playing video games. I asked the group, "What are we doing?"! We made our time about us, our desires, and about what we were informed that teenage guys are supposed to do.

What consumes our time past an ordinary amount? Work, busyness, sports, gaming, keeping up appearances, people, etc.? All of these can replace our worship of God and become our worship. Here's the thing. Our faith is only as strong as the object of our worship. So, if your faith is struggling, if the worship of God is boring compared to other things in this world; is it possible that the object of your faith is something other than God? Once we replace God, we are on the next step of apathetic spirituality or walking away from faith.

"Stumble...move from ancient paths..."

Most who claim faith in God typically do not desire to move away from Him, but it happens ever so subtly. Truly, when we forget about God, we replace Him with idols, our final step is a life that no longer looks like what Christ desires His people to be. The Israelites have strayed from the ways God provided for them. His way of life, the path of righteousness, of living that was ultimately best for them. Yet, somehow that path appeared irrelevant to them now, maybe even archaic. The new way of life they took on must have been appealing, but was it the best? We will stumble on our path of life all the time. However, if we are not informed by the Person and Word of God and we fill our lives with other "informants" of idolatry, it becomes all the harder to get back to our original path found in God.

The Final Result

When the people of God get caught in this progression of sin and spiritual apathy it creates problems for all people. God reveals how the Israelites have made their land a horror and they are an object of scorn by others. A people who once followed a God so closely and claimed His power are now walking away from Him. How foolish and hypocritical that must look to the outsiders. In addition, if the ways of God are not being lived out and passed down to the next generations, the land will end up in disarray. So, please reflect and consider: If I claim a radical, life-changing salvation found in Jesus Christ and yet don't show/live that radical life change, what am I speaking to others, especially those who don't know Him? How have I subtly moved from a life for God to something that is filled with more than Him? How will that impact my family, my community, my church, possibly my nation? There is so much at stake living mediocre, apathetic life for God. See that what we are called to by God is something greater than us and something that makes a great impact in this world!