“Acedia is like morphine. You know the pain is there, yet can’t rouse yourself to give a damn.” – Kathleen Norris, Acedia & Me
Throughout church history, those tasked with leading men and women in personal transformation quickly realized there were seven persistent sins that continually set traps for Christ followers.
Over time those sins became known as “the seven deadly sins.”
The key to overcoming each deadly sin is not by focusing on the sin itself, but by practicing a corresponding virtue which over time supplants the vice we each struggle with.
In short, spiritual growth comes by “doing this, not that.”
This past Sunday we kicked off DO THIS, NOT THAT by talking about spiritual apathy, or what the ancients called “Acedia,” which in Greek literally meant “not caring.”
Acedia is truly a lethal sin.
The 4th century monk Evagrius of Pontus said that acedia was the worst of all the deadly sins because, if you become comfortable with where you are spiritually, you’ll eventually lose all urgency whatsoever to eradicate the other sins in your life. But acedia is not the same as depression, and you can’t medicate your way out of it. You can’t overcome it by transferring to another church, finding a new Bible translation, or joining another small group. Acedia is willful. It’s a choice. You have to fight it in order to overcome it.
Do you struggle with acedia? How so? How do you overcome it when it strikes?
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