Recently I came across a couple of words that intrigued me. I wouldn’t
know how to spell them if I heard them and if I saw them I wouldn’t know
how to say them. But I realized I know them well. Too well,
actually! Here is one of them:
"acedia" – 1. Sloth 2. Laziness or indifference in religious matters.
It's an ancient term signifying profound indifference and inability to
care about things that matter, even to the extent that you no longer
care that you can't care.
In a modern form it is known as “compassion fatigue”. It is seen when
charities trying to help people through one crisis after another
suddenly find people are “tapped out” and no longer responding to the
call. It certainly is not due to lack of resources but rather to a lack
of will.
Kathleen Norris in her latest book, “Acedia and me”, says,
“If the
Christian church has made too much of the vice of pride, which seduces
us into thinking too highly of ourselves, it has not made enough of
sloth, which allows us to settle for being less than we can be, both as
individuals and a society”.
When I think about how this affects me personally, I realize that I can
at least have this tendency if not the full-blown attitude. It is easy
to fall into the trap of thinking, “I do enough, I give enough, I care
enough!” I’m not out to save the world on my own but if I begin to
think that I can’t make a difference or simply fail to put my hand to
something that does make a difference, I think I’ve crossed a line.
Thinking this way drives me to hard decisions. What will I give myself
to? This year Margaret and I have again committed to serving with
Barrie Out Of The Cold. We need a few
more people for our shift and there are holes to fill everywhere. It
really isn’t much, but it is something. It fights “acedia” in me and
that alone makes it a worthwhile effort! Would you consider joining an
effort to make a difference somewhere?
Roger