A performing arts organization has been trying to drum up support in the community for sponsoring arts programs for all ages, but little interest is expressed. The same lack of enthusiasm has been experienced by a committee chairwoman, who wishes more interest were being shown by committee members in what the group is charged with accomplishing. Chronic absenteeism at church services, and fewer members willing to help with committee responsibilities, is a worrisome trend throughout the religious community.
Bottom line: such disengagement is not good for individuals or organizations, and over the long term it can have a negative effect on even larger numbers.
Yet probably most of us would have to plead guilty at one time or another to drifting along with apathy. In the face either of reports of widespread indifference or of our own apathetic reaction to some opportunity or responsibility, we ought to pause and consider what’s at stake over the long haul. What happens if we continue to meet indifference with indifference? Nothing happens. It’s as simple and as dangerous as that.
At first, it may appear harmless, as when an automobile isn’t running quite as smoothly as it should, and initially we pay little attention to the problem. The danger comes when, day after day, we keep on doing nothing, and the trouble, uncorrected, gradually worsens. At some point, the damage becomes serious and everything comes to a standstill.
Indifference is a dull, unresponsive mentality that tends to resist learning, growth, progress, taking action to lend a helping hand. If we fall under the spell of indifference, it becomes a sort of self-sabotage, and we keep turning down opportunities to develop and advance and accomplish good things.
But we have the ability to break out of this indolence, and if we want to live fuller and happier lives, we need to.
The impetus for this is inspiration. And the source of the liberating, illuminating, and empowering force that we call inspiration is Spirit, God.
Spirit imparts the uplifting idea that man, you and I, are Spirit’s very expression — responsive, inexhaustible, and without human limits. Science and Health explains it this way: “God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis.”
Just think what this tells us about our actual, spiritual nature and life. God impels us to be developing, broadening, and rising all the time. God inspires us to value and to accept all the good things He provides for His creation. It’s unnatural, then, to lack interest in worthwhile activities or opportunities, in anything that’s good for us or others.
The acknowledgment that good, and only good, is what God, Love, has in store for us, and the determination to respond to that love, opens our eyes. It’s like the morning light that pierces the dream that we’re sinking in quick-sand. Once awake, we know that the sense of sluggishness or futility associated with being in the sand is sheer nonsense.
We don’t have to succumb to indifference, keeping us from a worthy endeavor such as education, helping others, or getting involved in our community. We are God’s creation—spiritual, vital, and responsive to divinity.
If tempted, shut the door on indifference. Doing so, you’ll discover there are all kinds of opportunities for enjoying life and accomplishing good. There’s no limit to what Life has to offer. The important thing is to accept this divine generosity and act on it.