Getting Worked Up

Our church’s youth retreat was this past week. The thread that tied the talks together was being people who care.

This kind of care is not about being sweet to those who are needy or broken, though some application ends up there. To care like this is to give serious attention and affection. It is to feel what is of interest and, even more, to feel what is of importance. So, we are concerned with being people who get worked up about things they should.

The opposite is indifference, neglect, carelessness. Apathy opposes affections. Boredom forgets and wastes blessings. Complaining is a perverted caring, a weed that grows strong in the soil of ungodly hearts.

The greatest commandment in Scripture, the command that summarizes the Old Testament, is not to walk the line or follow the liturgy. We must love God with whole-hearts, moved-souls, ready-minds, engaged-strength.

In other words, we must worship.

Perhaps we let ourselves off the hook for being distracted and dull because surely that can’t be as bad as real sinners. But Solomon said that the one who is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys (Proverbs 18:9), and the one who is apathetic in his worship (or who worships in motion but without affection) is a brother to him who worships an idol.

Not caring is not just a small blister, it is a broken heart. It is a sin to repent from, so be zealous and repent.