Lamentations 1:12-16
[12] “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger. [13] From on high he sent fire; into my bones he made it descend; he spread a net for my feet; he turned me back; he has left me stunned, faint all the day long. [14] My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail; the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand. [15] The Lord rejected all my mighty men in my midst; he summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah. [16] For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my spirit; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.”
Jeremiah starts the book Lamentations mourning for Judah going into exile and Jerusalem being destroyed and ransacked. Then he says to the people “Is it nothing to you, all who pass by?” Jeremiah then switches his focus to himself and those pass by him without care, worry, or concern.
See, Jeremiah had just spent years prophesying warnings to the people of Judah and they did not listen, now God’s judgment had fallen on them. He had been persecuted by their own hands for his prophecies, and now that they have come to pass, they still have no care for him. Today, the Church is very similar.
Missionaries go to places we don’t want to go in order to share the Gospel, yet we, as a whole, have no care for them or their anguish. Some of us even belittle them and if they die, say it’s their own fault. It has become nothing to us to see the Church persecuted, oppressed, and/or killed.
We turn a blind eye to it. Why? Apathy. If it does not directly affect us, we don’t care. Our love has begun to grow cold. Jesus said, “They (the world) will know you by your love for one another,” yet, we love only ourselves. We are like those who passed by Jeremiah without even giving him out the situation a second thought.
See, apathy lulls its victims to sleep so that they never even feel their own spiritual death. It’s like the scene in the Jungle Book. Mowgli is lulled to sleep by Kaa so that when Kaa went to strike and devour Mowgli he was unaware. Completely subdued, unable to fight back or defend himself. It takes Bagheera intervening to save Mowgli.
Apathy is a dangerous foe. It doesn’t beat you down like other strongholds. It plays the ally as it seduces you. So, quiet its lullaby. Follow the words of Christ and love your brother/sister. Pray for missionaries and the Underground Church. Don’t turn a blind eye to them or their pain.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Plug Your Ears To Their Lullabies.