The Instinct of Apathy: The Story of Abraham預覽

Do Not Grow Weary

The fact that Paul had to encourage the Galatians to not grow weary says plenty. It is easy to grow weary.

The scientists have a word for it. They call it entropy. It is the second law of thermodynamics. Things move toward increasing complexity. Things fall apart. It’s true of the smallest biology at work in our bodies and of the constantly expanding matter of the universe. Things never organize themselves. Things never fall into place. All creation is constantly complicated.

Build a house and immediately nature begins to pull it apart. Light a fire and it's a matter of time until it burns itself out. Buy that new car and it's already begun to rust.

We feel it. In our lives. In our families. In our world. Eventually, we come to realize how little control we have over it. It can be discouraging. Relationships don’t seem to improve. Jobs seem to achieve little. Society spirals downward.

We work to hold it off. But it’s a young man’s game to believe you can change it. We grow weary of all the work. Paul must have recognized it in the Galatians, too. Even having received the power of the Gospel, things still happen. Life can still be hard.

Paul urged them to think of their actions as seeds planted into the grown. Every planted seed is a form of sacrifice. A seed that could have been saved or eaten, is instead pushed back into the ground. We trust that it will grow. That it will produce a harvest, a multiple of what was given. But it takes faith to press that seed down, to give it up.

This was the meaning behind Jesus’ parable of the wicked servant who instead of investing the money he was given to steward, hid it and tried to protect any possible loss. Jesus called his motive wicked. The servant lived by fear, not faith. He had grown weary of the risk, the danger, and had sought to keep what he had safely under his control. That was not the way Jesus wanted his followers to live.

There are things best protected by giving them away, by entrusting them to God. There are things we ruin by clutching too tightly.

Do not grow weary of doing good. Keep planting. Keep sacrificing. Keep pressing what you have into the ground, trusting that there is a harvest coming in which God’s grace multiplies what has been given into an abundant reward.

Recognize your weariness. Be honest about what it risks. Make sure you aren’t overprotecting. And sacrifice so that you might receive it back even better. Keep planting. A harvest is coming.

How does the world’s complexity lead to weariness and why must you keep sacrificing?