Cold-Case Homicide Detective investigates Christianity!?
The "easy A" of Apathy
A sobering degree of curiosity and measured skepticism will serve you well. Look into things, engage in research, and be open to asking hard questions. You don't have to put on the tartan deerstalker cap while peering wide-eyed through a magnifying glass or quip your way through an orderly sequence of events on a well-calculated investigation. All anyone can ask is that you consider being more inquisitive about life.
We quickly allocate time to research the dos and don'ts of a healthy meal plan or the newest strength training regiment. We read books on good parenting or developing high business acumen. We attend conferences or workshops to hone a sought-after skill or craft. We anxiously parse trends in the stock market or work out strategies and details to consolidate our debts. The point is we naturally involve ourselves in all sorts of studying, learning, and discipline so long as we see the benefits, the ROI, and hopefully satisfy our personal interests. It's an "easy A."
Yet there are times in life when we investigate things that we are initially apathetic or indifferent towards and would much rather avoid. Such is the case when one gets the unfortunate diagnosis of some terminal disease, gets laid off unexpectedly from an enviable career, or when approached with life's biggest questions only to feign agreement so as not to offend and maintain some blurred line between "the spiritual" and "the religious."
If we manage to mitigate or solve all of our practical problems in life on a case-by-case basis and somehow meet our particular needs in a myriad of ever-changing circumstances—we're still left with our condition. What is our condition? Sin.
Now, before we…
Cynically write off the concept of sin as an antiquated word or backward concept that exists only within religious circles.
Dilute the word to mean something akin to a light blemish on an otherwise clean upstanding moral record insofar as we determine that standard ourselves.
Believe that it's only manageable by the most monastically or ascetically disciplined persons.
…consider the realistic and robust biblical description of the human condition.
You'd be glad to know that "sin" is not a religious word when rightly understood. It's more than brokenness or obvious bad behavior. It's also more insidious than breaking or bending a rule that initially seems harmless or won't harm anyone. In Hebrew, its basic meaning is "to fail" or "miss the mark." What is "the mark," "the goal," or "the destination?" To love God and love people. As humans, we are created and purposed to honor God and honor our fellow man. All that sin means is failing to meet this goal.
Moreover, both love of God and love of people are deeply and profoundly interconnected—so failing to love people is failing to love God, and failing to love God is failing to love people. Therefore sin is a failure to be truly human. Wrap your mind around that, my secular humanist friend. When we don't know or love God or fail to acknowledge Him, we fail to love others because our standard of love is always unequivocally lower, lesser, or limited in comparison.
If we're being honest with ourselves, our fundamental condition is sin. It's self-deception constantly spinning or reframing our bad decisions as good decisions. A selfish desire that runs deep into our core and a constant urge to act for our benefit or self-interest at the expense of others. It's a willful control of the narrative of our moral failures in an attempt to hide or, better yet, redefine them as moral successes. In Greek, "sin" is described as a power over us that holds us in captivity, a dark prison of inability with shackles that cannot be easily shaken off or forcefully broken. It's an intrinsic selfish impulse too tightly interwoven to be untangled. This is bad news!
Even so, we roll our eyes, and with a deep yawn, we stray into apathy. The Good News of Christianity falls on deaf ears and hardened hearts who refuse to own the bad news. Many of us will resent this description of the human condition and shun it wholesale.
Do you ever wonder why?
Here are 3 Reasons why anyone "shuns" the Truth (by J. Warner Wallace):
Rational - people who engage in a serious investigation and have honest objections regarding the evidence of Christianity.
Emotional - people who have struggled in life, maybe lost a loved one, or had a bad experience with Christianity.
Volitional - people who just don't want Christianity to be true, and openly resist it because they love the way their life is as it is, and, unfortunately, they love their sin.
I encountered the work of J. Warner Wallace in my early to mid-thirties while doing extensive research on the common objections to Christianity. What intrigued me immediately about his angle and approach is…