Pastor's Prattle

 

Complacency

I enjoy reading stories and hearing testimonies about people of faith and passion. Two such stories have been told recently in the ‘word for today’. One of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov whose passion for excellence, even in the Siberian Labour camp, would not allow him to finish a job before it was completed to his best ability. The other of a poor handicapped, midget of a man called Charles Steinmetz who would not give up and whose passion for helping other people through what he discovered led him to be one of the founders of the General Electric Company. These were just two individuals like you and I who decided they were going to make a difference in life. Just imagine if they had succumbed, like many do, to complacency and being satisfied with the norm, instead of following their passion.

This is what has been said of complacency:   (Bits & Pieces, May 28, 1992, p. 15)

· Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes, and causes a drain on the brain. The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are. The second is rejection of things as they might be. “Good enough” becomes today’s watchword and tomorrow’s standard. Complacency makes people fear the unknown, mistrust the untried, and abhor the new.

·  Like water, complacent people follow the easiest course—downhill. They draw false strength from looking back.

 

Ronald Meredith, in his book Hurryin’ Big for Little Reasons, describes one quiet night in early spring: Suddenly out of the night came the sound of wild geese flying. I ran to the house and breathlessly announced the excitement I felt. What is to compare with wild geese across the moon? It might have ended there except for the sight of our tame mallards on the pond. They heard the wild call they had once known. The honking out of the night sent little arrows of prompting deep into their wild yesterdays. Their wings fluttered a feeble response. The urge to fly—to take their place in the sky for which God made them—was sounding in their feathered breasts, but they never raised from the water. The matter had been settled long ago. The corn of the barnyard was too tempting! Now their desire to fly only made them uncomfortable. Temptation is always enjoyed at the price of losing the capacity for flight.

 

Zep 1:12  "I will search with lanterns in Jerusalem's darkest corners to punish those who sit complacent in their sins. They think the LORD will do nothing to them, either good or bad.”

 

So, here’s a challenge for you, are you a wild mallard that has been tamed by complacency or a Charles Steinmetz or Ivan Denisovich that has overcome the temptation and followed their passion to be all that God created them to be?

 Steve