"Eternal Games of Chance"

Eternal Games of Chance...

“Except, it is not a game, it is deadly serious—eternally deadly serious!”

Apathy

What kind of a person goes to a game of chance puts down a bet and does not care about the outcome?  Could it be that such a person is an apathetic and/or indifferent individual—one who does not have an emotional investment in what he is doing?

Apathy or indifference is defined as follows,

 Apathy …1. Lack of interest or concern, especially regarding matters of general importance or appeal; indifference.  2. Lack of emotion or feeling; impassiveness….”

The American Heritage Dictionary

The definition goes on to trace the word back through history noting that it comes from a Greek word that means without feeling (a = against or without, pathetic = pathos or feeling).  Simply it is an attitude of just not caring—not having emotional “buy in” thus no emotional investment in a situation or circumstance. 

Apathy in the extreme, results in one detaching from life and ending up in some kind of a pathologically detached state.   However, one must keep in mind that such indifferences as listed above are not without consequence. 

Imagine the Outcome of Indifference

Imagine being on a freeway with apathetic drivers—those who just do not care.  How far do you suppose you would get without injury or fatality?  Not far.

Imagine the same for one’s work place or profession.  There would be dire outcomes for working in and among the apathetic.  Maybe it might not make much of a difference in some jobs but imagine working with an apathetic logger, an indifferent fork lift operator, an unconcerned emergency room physician, or riding in an airplane with an apathetic pilot.

Apathy and Ethical Restraint

Dissolute or lacking in moral restraint is one outcome of apathy.  Since the notion of morals comes from societal mores, the worst outcome that may accrue is to fall out of favor with those of similar moral belief. 

However, there is a much more serious outcome and that is indifference to ethics and the attendant ethical restraint.  An ethic is a transcendent, universal, objective standard.  The very essence of well-being, both cultural and personal is derived from living within the boundaries of ethical standards. 

What is the outcome of ethical apathy?   To know about but face ethics with apathy is to chance chaos in one’s personal life and as well in culture. 

Apathy and Bondage

Some years ago someone observed that the last step before a people falling into bondage is apathy.  It would appear that even if a people can identify but are indifferent to the trends and practices of a greater power, then they soon will fall prey to that greater power.  History abounds with examples.

So then in these and other situations apathy or indifference goes well beyond simple emotional detachment from circumstances and/or one’s situation to consequences.  Often those consequences are most dire.  However, none are more dire and with less influence than those which follow.  

Spiritual Apathy

There is no more serious apathy than that of religious/spiritual matters.  In fact, it is of the greatest of impacts and therefore the most serious in outcomes.  It is so because of God’s design of Judeo-Christian tradition is that it is to influence if not impact every area of a person’s life.

Judeo-Christian tradition is not just to influence but it is to be the anchor point around which all else in one’s life is to revolve.  If one cares not where they anchor, then one cares not about that around which their life revolves. 

If there is religious/spiritual apathy, the consequences are in the areas listed above as well as others.  Reading the Bible and spending time in prayer, if at all, is tedious.  There is a lack of interest in things of spiritual significance.  There is a lack of concern for others and their needs.   Christianity is seen as an exercise in boredom.  Such a person is suffering a lethargy that leads to spiritual laziness.  It gets worse!

Eternal Apathy

This is the person who knows that there is a God and may well be able to tell you all about Him but does not care about his eternal future.  Again, it is that person who knows that there is an eternal future for which one must prepare but does not care and in fact is indifferent to an extreme.   

Thus the outcome of their choice:  Since such a one does not have an investment in the eternal “then,” they simply do not invest in the temporal “now.”  

 

 "And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper...and although they know the ordinances of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them." (Romans 1:28-31in part, NASU)

"Choosing the Right Pathway"

Choices, choices, choices, what is one to do?  Which path is the right and correct path to follow?

Do you remember the riddle about coming to a fork in the road?  When one thinks of a fork in the road one might think of the great philosopher, Yogi Berra and his great insight when he commented,

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it?"

Well so much for Yogi Berra.  So here is the riddle.

You are traveling down a road with great purpose and up ahead you notice a divide, a fork in the road.  Such prompts the question, “Which is the correct path to take?”  Only one will lead to your destination.

It is then that you notice the two men of which you heard.  They are standing at the junction where you will have to make a decision as to which road to take. 

Both of them know the correct answer to your question.  However, you've been warned that one of them always, without exception, lies and that the other, without exception, tells the truth.

You are allowed one question, but it must be the same question for both.

What is the question that you would ask to find the right path?

Here are some choices you might use to find the answer to the riddle.

• Use a lifeline and call a friend.
• Draw on some personal experience or another to make a decision.

• Use your intuition--you have a 50% chance of being right.

• Make a guess--again you have a 50% chance of being right.

• Make a choice and allow fate to decide outcomes.

• Flip a coin or roll the dice.

• Wait for the next person and follow them.

• Discount that the destination even exists.

• Give up the whole idea.

Maybe there are others that can go on the list.

The solution of the riddle is easier than it might first appear. 

You would simply ask each man in turn this question. 

"Which path would this other man say is the correct path?"

Both will give the same answer which is the wrong path and so you simply would take the other pathway.

Here is the explanation.

The liar will lie and say that the truthful man would say to go down one of the paths—the wrong path.  Because it is a lie, the correct path is the other path.  However you still do not know which man you are questioning.

The truthful man will tell the truth and say that the liar would say to go down one of the paths—the same one the liar picked.  Again you would not know which man you are questioning.

You do not need to know which is which but that they both pointed to the wrong path.  So then the correct choice is to choose the alternate pathway which is of course the proper pathway to the questioner's destination.

The Choices We Make…

Choices, choices, choices, what is one to do?  Which path is the right and correct path to follow?

Each of us, as we travel the roadway of life, arrives at many places where choices have to be made.  Most often the choices are obvious and certainly not as complex as in the previous riddle.

It is then that one must ask the question.  What is the basis upon which the choice is made?  As in the riddle, both roads do not end at the desired destination.  How is one to know?

Changing Frame of Reference…

The answer is found in what one chooses as his frame of reference.  If that frame of reference is ever moving and changing (self, group, situation, culture, mores, etc.) then there is great difficulty in choosing the right and correct pathway.  One never knows whether such is the correct path as culture is always redefining “correct.”

This is the easy path which must be wide in order to accommodate the great many that choose to walk it.  Actually there are those many because it is the pathway of one’s referent group and/or the culture in which one lives.

Constant Frame of Reference…

If on the other hand one chooses based upon a constant frame of reference, one that has not change for 2,000 years (The Judeo-Christian Scriptures, ethical truth, etc.) then there is less difficulty in choosing the right and correct pathway.

This is not the easy path, in fact it can be very difficult and therefore not many choose to travel its miles and so it has no need to be wide.  These are those who often are called upon to stand alone.

Easy Pathway…Maybe Not So Much!

Choices!  Choices lead to pathways.  Jesus taught about these pathways in his story, “The Gates.”  You can read about it in His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). 

Matthew 7:13-14 13 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.  14 "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.  NASU

The choice as to which gate to enter has a consequence.  The outcome of that choice is a path.  Walking that path has another consequence.  One path is difficult and leads to life, the other path is easy and leads to death.

The wonderful thing about being a follower of Jesus the Christ is this.  No matter how difficult the travel, dark the night, unfair the treatment, as one travels on the narrow pathway, there is One who said, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" (John 14:18) and so we who travel the difficult way though it may be difficult, dark, and lonely, we really never do travel alone.

The question I have for you today is actually quite simple, yet profound in its simplicity. 

“Do you have the courage to choose the pathway of the Christ and thus to enter through the narrow gate and then to travel on the Lord’s pathway?”