apathy- noun- 1. absense or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement 2. lack of interest in or concern for things that others find moving or exciting.
Today in my contemporary social issues class we were talking about WHY we even bother trying to solve social issues. One girls said, that if we are inherently evil, why strive to promote good? She said that the underlying tendency of evil makes our efforts seem in vain. She was wrestling with coming up with a reason to even bother taking action against social problems when our work may not even seem profitable. She has a point. But it seems like such a cynical viewpoint. I then raised my hand and offered my insight. If we we to just throw our hands in the air and give up on responding to social problems, then we would be guilty of becoming an apathetic people. I don't want to be apathethic. I think apathy is worse than trying to take action and promote justice. Apathy is like complacency- dangerous! My professor responded to my comment and said that he believes that we ought not be apathetic because the nature of God does not equate to being apathetic. God does not embody a "who cares" attitude. He wants to restore, He wants to redeem, he is concerned about bringing aobut justice and wholeness. As a Christ follower, I want to pray, "God help me work and act towards responding to issues in ways that would parallel the nature of Christ. Help me to not be apathetic, to not give up... but help me to embody justice. May we recognize that we should WANT to value social concerns. May we not be suppressed or disillusioned into thinking that there is no point. It is important to act towards restoration justice because it matters to God. God has not adopted an apathetic attitude towards humanity, so we should embrace the restorative heart of God as well."
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