The Danger of Staying the Same

I wrote last year that the greatest enemy of application is insight, but I’m having second thoughts. An even greater enemy may be inertia.

George M. Groutas (2010), Creative Commons

Physical science defines inertia as “a property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by an external force.” Picture a boulder. Inertia keeps a stationary boulder still, and inertia keeps a moving boulder barreling on in the same direction. Moving the still boulder, or redirecting the moving boulder, requires force.

We are the boulders, and application produces change. Since we can’t apply the Bible without overcoming our inertia, application done right will always be a challenge. And we should expect this challenge to take two forms.

First, we face the challenge of movement.

Inertia keeps us in the same place, but the Lord wants to move us. We grow comfortable with how things are, but through the word, the Holy Spirit moves us toward what might be. He pushes, pulls, nudges, convicts, cajoles, begs, batters, and compels. He does whatever he needs to do to get us moving toward Christ. Thus the ignorant person gets a clue. The indifferent person begins to care. The idle person gets to work.

Second, we face the challenge of redirection.

Inertia keeps us moving in the same direction, but the Lord wants to turn us toward him. We like to keep doing what we’re doing, but through the word, the Holy Spirit adjusts our trajectory and directs our path. He disciplines, directs, bumps, pursues, pesters, collides, invites, and overwhelms. He does whatever he needs to do to alter our course so we face toward Christ. Thus the angry person learns to love. The argumentative person learns to listen. The manipulative person learns to let go.

Application is terribly inconvenient.

It makes us doers of the word, unlike inertia, which encourages us to remain hearers of the word. As James writes:

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:22-25, ESV)

James takes issue not with hearing but with hearing and not doing. Hearing is good; it means that you “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). But hearing without doing is inconsistent. It’s like viewing your own portrait and honestly wondering who’s the looker. You’re not acting like yourself, and people should wonder what’s wrong. God’s perfect law promotes a life of liberty, but obstinate inertia eventually becomes an imprisoning insanity. Jesus likened it to building a beach hut in a hurricane zone (Matt 7:26-27). Make every effort to overcome your inertia and be not only a hearer but also a doer.

• Hearers of the word go to church. Doers of the word discuss the sermons later and find connections to their daily lives.
• Hearers of the word love theology. Doers of the word know when to attempt persuasion and when to abandon a quarrel.
• Hearers can identify what they’ve learned. Doers can identify how they’ve grown.
• Hearers have questions. Doers get answers.
• Hearers talk about obeying the civil authorities. Doers don’t exceed the speed limit.
• Hearers feel convicted. Doers make changes.
• Hearers see how people need to change. Doers see how they themselves need to change.
• Hearers know who Jesus is. Doers look more like him every day.

When the founders of the United States of America declared their independence from Great Britain, they based their actions on certain self-evident truths, including the Creator’s endowment of inalienable rights to all men. Among those immutable rights was the pursuit of happiness. What is the pursuit of happiness? According to an 1884 Supreme Court ruling, it is:

…the right to pursue any lawful business or vocation, in any manner not inconsistent with the equal rights of others, which may increase their prosperity or develop their faculties, so as to give them their highest enjoyment.[1]

The pursuit of happiness is the improvement of life. King George’s threat to the colonies wasn’t so much a threat of sadness as a threat to maintain the status quo. He wanted things to continue as they had been, with the colonies under his thumb, paying well, and unable to improve their communities. In other words, the greatest threat to the pursuit of happiness is inertia.

Change is worth fighting for.

Question: How do you see and resist the problem of inertia in your life?