Overcoming Apathy E-Book

Uche Anizor

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Understanding Apathy and How to Combat It For many Christians, apathy can feel inescapable. They experience a lack of motivation and a growing indifference to important things, with some even struggling to care about anything at all. This listlessness can spill over into our spiritual lives, making it difficult to pray, read the Bible, or engage in our communities. Have we resigned ourselves to apathy? Do we recognize it as a sin? How can we fight against it? In Overcoming Apathy, theology professor Uche Anizor explains what apathy is and gives practical, biblical advice to break the cycle. Inspired by his conversations with young Christians as well as his own experiences with apathy, Anizor takes a fresh look at this widespread problem and its effect on spiritual maturity. First, he highlights the prevalence of apathy in our culture, using examples from TV, movies, and social media. Next, he turns to theologians, philosophers, and psychologists to further define apathy. Finally, Anizor explores causes, cures, and healthy practices to boldly overcome apathy in daily life, taking believers from spiritual lethargy to Christian zeal. This short ebook is an excellent resource for those struggling with apathy as well as parents, mentors, and friends who want to support someone in need. - Examines the Individual and Cultural Experience of Apathy: Analyzes the concept, experience, and healing from apathy; explores influences from philosophers to pop culture to understand its nature  - Practical Steps for Dealing with Apathy: Identifies 7 causes as well as healthy habits to fight against indifference - Accessible for Students and Mentors: A great guide for high school and college students and those who counsel them; youth and young adult pastors; teachers; and anyone struggling with apathy or who knows someone who is

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“One of the greatest dangers for modern Christians is not apostasy but apathy. In the church, there are not masses of people who are in danger of denying Jesus, but some are in danger of growing bored with him. In Overcoming Apathy, we are met with practical ways for the church to fight back against one of our greatest challenges and we are confronted with the beauty of the gospel and the glory of King Jesus.”

J. T. English, Lead Pastor, Storyline Fellowship, Arvada, Colorado; author, Deep Discipleship

“Uche Anizor speaks from his experience, encouraging us to recognize and resist apathy, which is so common in our day. Human apathy refers not to healthy rest or godly contentment, but the loss of motivation and the growth of indifference; this condition then often undermines love for God and neighbor. If you feel apathetic, have lost motivation, and wonder if God has anything to say about your indifference, let Anizor point you back toward our good God and his good purposes. You’ll see that there is much worth living for because you have been liberated to care about things God cares about.”

Kelly Kapic, Professor of Theological Studies, Covenant College; author, You’re Only Human

“Overcoming Apathy is an honest invitation to take a tour of our hearts, where apathy often lives. Apathy, which has always been pervasive in fallen hearts, has been popularized by our present age to the point where we don’t even notice its presence and power in our lives. Uche Anizor helps us identify and define apathy, disentangling it from other emotions and experiences. With nuance and relevance, he offers seven seed buds from which apathy grows, pairing each with an antidote from Scripture. He moves from philosophical discussion to practical suggestions with ease, offering hope to those who struggle with indifference to that which should most ignite us to love and adoration.”

Aimee Joseph, author, Demystifying Decision-Making

“Uche Anizor has put his finger on one of the most disturbing and poignant cultural problems in the modern West: apathy. His psychologically insightful, theologically careful, and devotionally rich treatment will help readers both understand and overcome this ‘sickness of the soul.’ Both individual readers and small groups will benefit from Uche’s wise diagnosis of the causes and nature of apathy, as well as from his discussion of how we find healing and escape from apathy in the gospel.”

Gavin Ortlund, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church of Ojai, California; author, Finding the Right Hills to Die On

Overcoming Apathy

Overcoming Apathy

Gospel Hope for Those Who Struggle to Care

Uche Anizor

Overcoming Apathy: Gospel Hope for Those Who Struggle to Care

Copyright © 2022 by Uche Anizor

Published by Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Jordan Singer

First printing, 2022

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. http://www.zondervan.com/. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-7880-9 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-7883-0 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-7881-6 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-7882-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Anizor, Uche, 1976- author. 

Title: Overcoming apathy : gospel hope for those who struggle to care /

Uche Anizor. 

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index. 

Identifiers: LCCN 2021019520 (print) | LCCN 2021019521 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433578809 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433578816 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433578823 (mobi) | ISBN 9781433578830 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Caring—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Apathy—Religious aspects—Christianity. 

Classification: LCC BV4647.S9 A55 2022 (print) | LCC BV4647.S9 (ebook) | DDC 241/.3—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021019520

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021019521

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2022-02-21 01:18:15 PM

To John Piper,

whose ministry definitively shaped my desire

to fight for God-centered zeal

and against spiritual apathy

Contents

Preface: Something for the Strugglers

1  A Show about Nothing: Our Culture of Apathy

2  The Noonday Demon: On the Concept of Apathy

3  Everyone’s Got a Story: Seven Deadly Causes of Apathy

4  O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go: The Cure for Apathy

5  Wax On, Wax Off: Ways to Combat Apathy

Concluding Thoughts

Acknowledgments

General Index

Scripture Index

Preface

Something for the Strugglers

This book is an exploration of apathy. My main concern is spiritual apathy, or indifference toward the core things that Christians should care about. These few chapters are my modest attempt to understand and address an experience so commonplace that it feels like an expected part of life.

I’ve been meaning to write this book for years as a way of understanding myself and the ups and downs of my own Christian life. I am not a psychologist, but I am someone who by experience, sadly, is intimately acquainted with the topic. I write as one Christian man to fellow travelers who are perplexed by their indifference to the things of God.

This book is not for those unwilling to change. It is for the perturbed, the struggling. It is for those who feel stuck, but want to change. It is for those who find their coldness mystifying and disturbing. It is for those who want to be passionate about the things of God but can’t seem to care enough. I write for those who pray, “Lord, I care, but help my lack of caring!” This book is for true strugglers.

I don’t intend this to be the definitive word on apathy. If you like to categorize books, this one should perhaps be placed in the category of practical or pastoral theology. As a theologian, I firmly believe that good theology is always done in conversation: primarily with Scripture, but also with other theologians and thinkers. I approach this topic similarly. Throughout these pages, we’ll dialogue with pastors, monks, psychologists, theologians, philosophers, sociologists, and so forth. But in the end, my aim is to offer Christian resources for understanding and battling apathy.

The first chapter explores how pervasive apathy is in society, our churches, and our own hearts. Without providing a more detailed definition quite yet, I make some initial observations about the curious nature of apathy and gesture toward the hope of overcoming it. Chapter 2 attempts to define apathy by integrating wisdom from philosophers, theologians, psychologists, and more. This chapter requires us to slow down and think carefully about the concept of apathy, but hopefully the clarity achieved will be worth the effort. The third chapter addresses some possible causes of apathy. My aim is to help us diagnose the sources that seem most true to our experiences individually. There are certainly other causes, but these are a helpful starting point. Chapter 4 brings our apathy into conversation with the gospel. How does the good news of God’s grace confront the apathetic? The chapter highlights the liberating truth that God is the main actor in the fight against apathy. It is he who offers hope and healing from chronic indifference. The final chapter turns our attention to what we can do to help foster anti-apathy postures in our lives. While God and his gospel are the primary players, we are by no means mere spectators. Discipline, intentionality, and work (gasp!) are essential for the cultivation of virtues that will help keep apathy at bay.

May this little book be an instrument in God’s hands to nudge you one step further away from indifference.

1

A Show about Nothing

Our Culture of Apathy

Imagine you died and your children discovered your secret journals—what would they find within? What would surprise them? What themes would stick out to them? In my case, I think my kids would be overwhelmed by the number of entries in which I prayed the same kind of prayer: “Lord, wake me up!”

I became a Christian when I was eighteen, after wrestling with the fear of death for some time. I met Jesus through reading the Gospel of Matthew in a King James Bible given to me as a birthday gift. Reading of Jesus’s character, seeing his love in action, and encountering for the first time his promises of eternal life were absolutely transformative. Without hearing a formal “gospel presentation,” I was powerfully drawn to him. I decided in the course of my reading that I wanted to follow this man for the rest of my life. I finally found hope.

My early days as a Christian were marked by youthful zeal. I remember taking forty-five-minute walks home from high school, rather than hopping on the school bus, just so I could stop at the local Christian bookstore (remember those?) to browse books about the Bible. I’d chitchat with the store manager, asking question after question about good books to read. I had a hunger to know things I knew nothing about. When I got home from school, I’d scurry up to my room for time alone with God, the Bible, and whatever book I had picked up from the shop. Everything was different.

Or so I thought.

It didn’t take long for me to feel in my gut that something wasn’t right about my Christian life. I noticed a war raging inside of me. On the one hand, I had a strong desire for learning, truth, knowledge, understanding. On the other hand, I had started to feel “blah” about prayer, people, and other things that are supposed to matter to Christians.

This two-sidedness, or (better) double-mindedness, plagued me into my twenties. In college, I got involved with a campus ministry that was committed to helping Christians grow and to teaching them how to share their faith with others. While being a part of this group was fantastic in many ways, it also exacerbated my troubles. There’s nothing worse than being around a bunch of passionate and sincere people when you don’t feel very passionate about things you know you should care deeply about.

Much to my shame, several times when I was sharing the gospel with fellow students, I found myself wanting the experience to be over. Keep in mind, most spiritual conversations I had on campus were friendly. It was rare to have a stressful, antagonistic gospel encounter. Yet, I wanted them to end—not all the time, but enough times to give me pause.

In my mid- to late twenties, I sat in church services countless times daydreaming or waiting for the preaching to end. It had nothing to do with the quality of the preaching—I’ve been around a lot of good preaching. Instead, there was something askew in my affections. I lacked passion.

In time, I would come to hate the word passion! But I couldn’t fault those who had it. I was convinced they were on to something. Jesus’s rebuke to the churches in Ephesus encapsulated how I felt about my Christian life, even in those early days: “I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” (Rev. 2:4).

I was lame and lukewarm. So on top of filling journals with prayers of longing, I took up writing songs of desperation. A few verses from one song sheepishly exclaimed the theme that pervaded my journals:

Wake me up, I don’t know that I’m sleeping,

Wake me up ‘cause I’m dead unawares;

Wake me up ‘cause I’ve fallen asleep,

And I don’t care.

Wake me up ‘cause my life seems a duty,

Wake me up ‘cause I can’t mean a prayer;

Wake me up ‘cause I can’t see Your beauty,

And I don’t care.

This song summed up my twenties: apathy mixed with longing and a tinge of guilt.

Making Indifference Fashionable

Roughly coinciding with my becoming a Christian was the advent of Seinfeld. No TV show before or since has captivated me as much as this quirky sitcom from the 1990s. My Thursday nights were built around catching the latest episodes. I had never seen a show so clever, creative, and consistently hilarious. I wasn’t alone in my love for the sitcom. During its last five seasons, 30 million or more viewers tuned in weekly, with the finale garnering around 76 million viewers. It is regularly cited as one of the best shows of all time and has remained a cultural phenomenon since going into syndication.

The brilliance of the show’s concept was portrayed in a key episode in season four, where Jerry (played by Jerry Seinfeld) and George (played by Jason Alexander) discuss writing a TV show pilot episode for NBC. As they consider what the show might be about and exchange some typically witty banter, George timidly suggests, “This should be the show. This is the show.”

Jerry: What?

George: This. Just talking.

Jerry: Yeah, right.

George: I’m really serious. I think that’s a good idea.

Jerry: Just talking? What’s the show about?

George: It’s about nothing.

Jerry: No story?

George: No, forget the story.

Jerry: You gotta have a story!

George: Who says you gotta have a story?

As the conversation goes on and Jerry remains bewildered by the concept, he exclaims in a frustrated voice, “I still don’t know what the idea is!”

George: It’s about nothing!

Jerry: Right.

George: Everybody’s doing something. We’ll do nothing.

Jerry: So, we go into NBC, we tell them we got an idea for a show about nothing?

George: Exactly.

Jerry: They say, “What’s your show about?” I say, “Nothing.”

George: There you go!

[Pause . . .]

Jerry: I think you may have something here.1

This scene was a bit of an inside joke. The show’s writers were giving the audience a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how Seinfeld and the sitcom’s cocreator, Larry David, came up with and pitched the show. Though this may not have been the writers’ intention, this scene suggested that a key to understanding the actual show (not the imaginary pilot) was to recognize that it was a “show about nothing.”

Many fans latched on to the idea that Seinfeld was a show about nothing. The writers were onto something. A show about nothing was quite unique—uncharted waters even. But was Seinfeld really a show about nothing?

The show’s unofficial motto, “No hugging, no learning,” coined by David, highlighted its nose-thumbing attitude toward previous TV and societal conventions. It was not a show about nothing per se, but a show about insignificant, petty things. It was a show that normalized indifference toward big, meaningful things (such as marriage, family, religion, social concern, even the Holocaust) and a fixation on life’s daily minutia (such as getting a good parking spot, the annoyance of “close talkers,” and maintaining one’s high score in Frogger).

Indifference was the name of the game.

Nothing captured this theme like the series finale. While waiting around in the small fictional town of Latham, Massachusetts, the show’s four main characters witness an overweight man getting carjacked. Rather than jumping to his aid, they sit back and mock him about his weight, video record the assault taking place, and then walk away. The victim notices their mockery and inaction, and eventually reports them to the officer on the scene. The four are then arrested for violating what is known as the “Good Samaritan Law,” a statute requiring bystanders to respond in situations when others are in danger.

A lengthy and highly publicized trial ensues. The prosecutors call in witness after witness (characters from several previous episodes) to demonstrate that the main characters’ inaction toward the carjacking victim is just one example among many of their poor character.

Finally, the judge calls on the jury to read its verdict on the charge of “criminal indifference.” The jurors find Jerry and his friends guilty. But it is the judge’s closing statement that captures the truth about Seinfeld that its writers and viewers have known (or at least felt) all along. He declares, “I don’t know how or under what circumstances the four of you found each other, but your callous indifference and utter disregard for everything that is good and decent has rocked the very foundation upon which our society is built.”

They are sentenced to one year in jail. The series ends with the four friends sitting in a jail cell, more or less indifferent to their consequences, chitchatting about the location of George’s shirt button—which, not coincidentally, is the very thing he and Jerry talked about in the opening scene of the very first episode—among other insignificant things.

Thus concluded one of the best shows of all time, a show that ended as it began, with none of the characters really having grown as a person. Seinfeld made it fashionable to not care about significant things, to treat them with a “meh.” As David would tell an interviewer, “A lot of people don’t understand that Seinfeld is a dark show.”2

A Seinfeldian Society

I wonder what effect being reared on Seinfeld, not to mention other shows, such as TheSimpsons, Married with Children, and Friends, had on my posture toward life. While there were certainly a number of factors shaping me at the time, a steady diet of this kind of pop culture (and I watched a lot of TV) only nurtured an attitude of indifference. Subconsciously I grew to believe that it was cooler to not care about meaningful things, or at least to not put any earnestness on display.

I knew, in my head, that there were important things in the world to care about. However, I couldn’t bring myself to care deeply enough about them or move toward them.

I don’t believe I’m alone in this. I think that many of us experience this disconnect between head, heart, and hands. We know what is good, right, and life-giving, but cannot seem to lift a finger to do anything about it. We know that a bit of quiet reflection would do us some good, but we hit “Play” on that fourth consecutive episode of whatever show we’re into. We’re aware that spending some time in worship with other believers might inspire us, but we’d rather sleep in (especially after our previous night’s Netflix marathon). I am calling this the “curse of apathy,” and many of us have been stricken by it. Conversations with friends, youth workers, my students, and colleagues have convinced me that we live in a culture plagued by apathy. For too many of us, life feels like a show about nothing. It feels unworthy of our serious attention. We are citizens of a Seinfeldian society, where only inconsequential things matter.

This claim may seem counterintuitive in light of how easily people seem to get outraged these days. Yet, I’m simply trying to shed light on the fact that we are numb to the meaningful, but often “alive” to the trivial.

Exhibit A: In 2010, the clothing retailer Gap decided to rebrand itself, changing its iconic blue box logo to something more “modern, sexy, cool.” Company executives could not have foreseen the strong blowback the new logo received. Critics panned it, the Twittersphere mocked it, and Gap’s Facebook page overflowed with comments deriding the redesign:

“THE NEW LOGO IS DISGUSTING!!”

“THE NEW LOGO IS HORRIBLE!!”

“NO NEW LOGO!! the old one is a BRAND . . . not just a NAME!!!”

“Sad, sad day for GAP!!! Old logo is classic and should stay put!!!”

“A monstrosity”

“I’ll be surprised if a few people won’t lose their jobs”

And on and on it went. There were hundreds of comments—some lighthearted, many disturbingly serious. It is amazing how passionate people can get about a company’s logo! Gap learned this the hard way. After only six days and oodles of dollars spent, the company reverted to its previous logo design. Similar responses would follow Yahoo’s redesign in 2013 (which it redesigned again in 2019).

Some things evoke passion in us, while other things induce yawns. The paradox of apathy is that we are captivated by the things we don’t really care about and are lukewarm to the things that, in our heart of hearts, mean the most to us. We don’t act on what we should act on, but we are awakened to things we should probably ignore.

Thus, busyness and activity are not necessarily the antonyms to apathy. What one writer says about sloth is true of apathy: “It easily attaches to our hectic and overburdened schedules. We appear to be anything but slothful (read: apathetic), yet that is exactly what we are, as we do more and care less, and feel pressured to do still more.”3

While I have chosen not to define apathy until the next chapter, I’ve sought here to focus on its strange selectivity. It is not care-less; it is care-adrift, care-misplaced. As another writer puts it, our culture is a “breeding ground” for chronic apathy due to the proliferation of distractions available to us.4 We are regularly invited to care, just not too much or about too important a matter. In fact, our busyness may serve only to exacerbate our disengagement from meaning and to keep our spirits in a state of lethargy.5

It is not that our culture is unique in this. I imagine apathy has existed since the dawn of time. What seems unique is that apathy has to some degree become normalized and acceptable, and confessing it can be a mark of authenticity. There’s no shame, no stigma attached to it in some quarters. At worst it’s a bummer, but it is just the furniture of life in the twenty-first century.

Apathy and the Church

This issue is all the more important for Christians, who know the only true God, have Jesus as their Savior, have been given a mission to the world, and are promised eternal life. In other words, we’ve been given access to the most significant realities one could imagine. Yet, we “are in the world” even if we’re not of it. The things that pervade our society inevitably creep into the church and shape the people of God. Apathy is no different.

Sometimes it seems as if there’s some sort of inverse relationship between the grandeur of a truth and our emotional and practical response to it. The greater the truth (or concept or calling), the less we care about it. Perhaps this is a result of the fact that sermons and Bible studies never stop talking about the biggest things, like God and salvation, heaven and hell. Maybe grand things have become too common, too familiar. Yet, whatever the reason may be, we are bored by big things; the bigger, the more boring.

Over sixty-five years ago, A. W. Tozer bemoaned the evangelical devotion to what he called “the great god Entertainment.” In a provocative essay, he observes how the broader culture’s fixation on amusement and entertainment has corrupted the church. He writes, “For centuries the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, recognizing it for what it was—a device for wasting time, a refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience, a scheme to divert attention from moral accountability.” He goes on to say that rather than continuing the battle against the great god Entertainment and suffering the abuse that attends the struggle, the church has joined forces with him. Then he gets especially prickly (and this is worth quoting at length):

So today we have the astonishing spectacle of millions of dollars being poured into the unholy job of providing earthly entertainment for the so-called sons of heaven. Religious entertainment is in many places rapidly crowding out the serious things of God. Many churches these days have become little more than poor theatres where fifth-rate “producers” peddle their shoddy wares with the full approval of evangelical leaders who can even quote a holy text in defense of their delinquency. And hardly a man dares raise his voice against it.6

To think that Tozer was saying this in the 1950s! If this was true then, what would he say about our times? We care about things that do not matter. We devote ourselves to amusement. We worship at the altar of the trivial, and Tozer’s point is that we would be far from apathetic if someone were to speak against our devotion to this great god.

A recent article entitled “Local Christian Counting on Kingdom of God as Backup Plan Just in Case Favorite Political Party Fails Him” reads,

LAKE CHARLES, LA—Local Christian Guy Tenney announced Monday that he’s still clinging to the hope of the coming of the Kingdom of God, just in case his political party happens to fail him.

“On the off chance that my political party doesn’t usher in peace on earth, I guess there’s always Jesus,” he said thoughtfully as he opened his Bible for morning devotions, but spent most of the time checking the Twitter feeds of his favorite political pundits to see on which front the culture war would be fought today. “It’s good to have a plan B to fall back on.”

Tenney said, however, that he doesn’t expect his chosen political party to fail him. He pointed out that they have money, power, and the promise to use the government to do stuff that he approves of.7

This is, of course, satire from the website The Babylon Bee, which makes a living pointing to ironies in Christians’ priorities. Much of its humor revolves around our shared sense that Christians often get exercised by things that don’t matter, but are indifferent to things that should move them. Other delightfully funny headlines include:

“Baptist Church Service Halftime Show Criticized for Showing Too Much Ankle”

“Christian Not Sure Why He Should Look Forward to Heaven When He Already Lives in America”

“Christian Artist Renounces Faith Now That Jesus Has Served His Purpose of Providing Fame, Fortune”

It would be an unfair overstatement to claim that the church doesn’t care at all about important things. Rather, I think the issue is often the two-sidedness I spoke of earlier: we care on some deep level, but don’t care enough to be moved; we know what the good is, but often do not find it very exciting or engaging.

Here’s a quiz: Which of these core Christian practices would you say your church is passionate about?

Scripture Engagement—Does your congregation read the Scriptures regularly, value the Word, apply it, obey it, and speak it? Is the Bible a central part of church life?

Prayer—Is your community characterized by prayer, not just during services but throughout the week? Does more than 5 percent of your church body show up to prayer meetings, if you have those at all?

Generosity—Is your community known for extravagant generosity rather than for being consumers? Are people organizing their lives around giving rather than the pursuit of more success and wealth? Is the generosity that is evident in your church so compelling that it draws others to Christ?

Church Involvement—Does the average church member attend church three or even (gasp) four times a month? Is committed a word you would use to characterize the people of your congregation?

Evangelism—Would you describe your church or immediate Christian community as thoughtfully engaged in introducing others to Jesus Christ?