Posts Tagged ‘Apathy’

Is God Safe?

Posted: March 17, 2026 in Something to think about
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I was reading from a book recently when I came across this question the author posed which I found intriguing because of the obvious contrast. This contrast I am referring to is the God we often refuse to see: the God who is simultaneously our ultimate Privilege and yet, our ultimate Peril. He is one God—with two very different realities— but yet He is held together without contradiction.

I hope I don’t surprise any of you with this post but to be clear, the more I learn about our God, the more I fear Him. God isn’t “just” filled with compassion and mercy; He is an Almighty and “Consuming Fire” and as a reminder, many times when He spoke or just showed up in the Bible, people were filled with sheer terror. 

I think one of the best examples of this is when God leads His people to Mt Sinai where he gave them His Ten Commandments in the book of Exodus. Moses serves as the liaison between the Children of Israel and God by going back and forth, or… up and down the mountain 8 different times to accomplish this task. 

As J. A. Motyer tells us, “The 10 Commandments were spoken by the Lord, in His own voice to Israel, but to those who heard this found the experience terrifying beyond endurance and appealed to Moses to be their mediator”. See the Exodus verses below:

When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”  Exodus 20:18-19.

You see, God was building a foundation for them to understand that He was the God who saved them from Egyptian slavery and brought them to this place. Here, at His mountain, He would teach them about His holiness. And that without holiness, no one will see the Lord. 

But as we learn, Israel assumed that “an easy going people believe in an easy going God” which could not have been further from the truth. Because “the Lords holiness is like a huge force held in check, but constituting an overwhelming menace if released”.

The real lesson here is DO NOT TAKE GOD FOR GRANTED. Do not approach Him with indifference or apathy because He is God and He should be revered.

So I ask you the question again, Is God Safe?

Let’s see how Donald McCullough answers that in his book, The Trivialization of God:

God is definitely not safe. To appear before the Wholly Other with steady knees – well, it would be foolhardy, to say the least. In the presence of this God, human indifference gets slapped to alert attention and human pretension gets knocked on its backside. 

God is not safe, but God is good, very good. For the dangerous otherness is a transcendent, loving commitment not to be separate – a threat to our egos that establishes our true selves, a danger that is our only safety. 

Why is this important now? 

Because if you haven’t noticed, this society continues to move at warp speed towards indifference and apathy…two human characteristics God hates the most because they come from the evil one. And it is critical for you and me to constantly be reminded that although our God is a patient and loving God, He is still a consuming fire who, as the Psalmist tells us in 115:3, “Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him.” And guys, there is absolutely nothing you or I can do about that…except be humble and reverent towards Him.

Which is my encouragement to you today. Don’t get lost in apathy or lack of caring about your relationship with Christ. Renew it today and stay connected to Him.

Let me leave you with this quote from the C.S. Lewis book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe about the first time the children learn about Aslan:

“Is…is he a man?” asked Lucy.

“Aslan, a man!” said Mr. Beaver sternly. “Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of the Beasts? Aslan is a Lion  –  the Lion, the great Lion.”

“Ooh!” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”.

“That you will, dearie, and make no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver. “If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or just silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Until next time Guys-

NOTES:

  • Motyer, J. A. The Message of Exodus, Inter-Varsity Press, 2005
  • McCullough, Donald, W. The Trivialization of God, Navpress, 1995
  • Lewis, C. S., The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Harper Trophy, 1950

Destination Procrastination

Posted: June 27, 2011 in Husband, Inspirational
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Procrastination. We are all guilty of it. We can seem to help ourselves. Sometimes I think procrastination is part of my DNA because no matter what the situation; confronting someone about their less than stellar work performance, or just dealing with a situation I may find uncomfortable, procrastination seems to affect everyone one of us at one time or another. The question is will it stick and be a part of us forever?

Now, I know there will be those out there who will read this post and just laugh. If that is the case, this post is NOT for you. But for the rest of us, the ones who tend to struggle with procrastination or self-discipline at your core level, I write this for you.

I looked up Procrastination in the dictionary and it told me “Procrastination is putting off until tomorrow what you should do today” I absolutely think that definition is very accurate but I would also interject that if procrastination only meant one waited until the next day, I don’t think the problem would be such a problem. To me though, the real issue is the people who put off what should be done today until next year, or worse case, never…those folks are the real concern. Can you imagine waiting a lifetime for someone to take care of something?

Why do people Procrastinate?
I am not a psychologist so I can’t give you reasons for people putting of their responsibility, but I can say, as a manager of people for the last 25 years, many of these folks frankly, don’t take care of what should be taken care of because they struggle mightily with self-discipline (or they are just lazy). I get to watch them everyday. Why is it that someone will only do enough to meet the bare minimum of responsibility, or wait until the last possible moment to turn in what is required of them?I see this problem coming down to personal organization or personal distractions like maybe a difficult home life or worse yet, they are just that “way”. Procrastinator, lazy, or all of the above.

Now we all know someone who fits my description. Sometimes we even find it funny, like our roommate in college who made a living with “just in time”papers to the professor, but he was only able to accomplish this with regular all night coffee binges the night before. When I hear a story like this I ask myself why…? Why is a little self-discipline so hard to accomplish for some people? Vance Havner said, “The alternative to self-discipline is disaster” and I agree with him. Continued complacency towards the future will result is just that…a disaster.

Remember that our success, in any endeavor, depends on the passion we bring to it, like our families or our place of work. God has created a world where your diligence is rewarded and laziness is not. Yes…you heard me correctly, God does NOT reward laziness, misbehavior, or apathy. Instead, he expects us to behave with dignity and self-discipline but what I have found, there isn’t much of those qualities around when you need them.

Proverbs 23:12 says to, Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge, and 2 Peter 1:5-6 tells us, For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness. God’s word is very clear to us; We must exercise self-discipline in all things and NOT put off our responsibilities until tomorrow…

Guys I encourage you to NOT procrastinate but to go out and put in a hard days work because you know it’s the right thing. When you do, you are on your way to a life of character and self discipline…a great place to be…

Until next time…