Danger, Will Robinson

Is apathy dangerous? I would argue that apathy is at least as bad for your soul as pure hatred. Even as I say it, I wonder if I can back it up sufficiently. Yet, I stick by my statement. Apathy can take many forms, but I think I will focus on your testimony and personal growth.

See, I was in choir today, preparing for next week's musical number. I am not the most musical person I've ever known but, I have a little ability there. Anyway, I started hearing someone off pitch just a little, and as I paid attention, it became obvious that that person was me. I had stopped paying attention. I figured I was well on my way and knew how to sing, so no big deal. I had forgotten to listen.

I just didn't care to and my ability slid.

In life, it is easy to not pay attention to what you are doing. It is easy to care about what others are doing and how it affects you, but it is not so easy to look at yourself. It is hard for me to look at myself because when I do, I'm often plagued by so many "you should be doing..." "you should look like..." "you should be perfect already" types of ideas, so I often shut it off and just assume I am doing good enough, in every area.

Life is a difficult balancing act. In my ward today, we talked about many things, but one thing that really stuck out was about commitment, and why the Lord requires that we make and follow them. Everything God does is out of love for us, and therefore, the commandments are for our eternal - and temporal - well being. Are we following them?

What areas are you lacking? Ask yourself what more you could do, what more you could give up, and what you need to work on. You are not yet perfect. For instance, I need to be more patient with my eternal progress, my roommates' conflicting beliefs/behaviors, and where I am at in life. I also need to work harder at trusting in God, in being a better visiting teacher, and loving my calling. The thing is, I live either in "Oh, I'm doing just fine and don't need to pay attention or work for anything" and "I am a horrible person, there is so much wrong with me and no hope that I can ever be perfect."

My friend mentioned how she likes to think of all of the commitments and laws of God as traffic laws. She travels a lot, and often finds that many people don't care about traffic laws, they just drive how they want. God gave us our 'traffic laws' so that we could all help each other, so that we can come back to Him easily. But, sometimes, we don't care. We don't see the big picture, why things matter, and we all have that one law where we feel we can be the exception, or that it is really 'just a suggestion.'

Apathy is dangerous. It leads us down paths we don't really want to go. Hold on to your commitments, remember them, remember to make them a part of who you are, and consciously work to improve. Trust that as you work on the areas that the Spirit is with you on, that you will come closer to God, you will improve, and it will all fall into place. Remember that your heart must first be in the right place. Learn to care, learn to hope, learn to turn to the Savior when everything else falls apart.