Spiritual Drafts

Introduction

Have you ever been walking through a house or somewhere at work and felt a sudden rush of cold air in the winter or hot air in the summer? Have you found your favorite spot in the living room or another room of the house and avoid another? Have you noticed any drafts lately or understand what happens when there is a draft?

Many times we find ourselves in an older home or older workplace discovering drafts from the years of stress, use or degradation on the buildings. Certain places develop fractures or points of weakness that eventually lead to almost inperceptable cracks letting just that little bit of air through causing a draft.

Body

Read Amos 6:1

Amos 6:1 NKJV

Woe to you who are at ease in Zion, And trust in Mount Samaria, Notable persons in the chief nation, To whom the house of Israel comes!

I read this Scripture not as a complaint or an accusation. I read this Scripture, because I am observing and noticing a trend in the church today. It seems that many Christians are beginning to get complacent or apathetic about what is going on around them and about reaching out to help others.

It seems like people are more concerned with staying within their close knit groups, making sure not to disrupt their own traditions, religions or comforts.

It seems like people are less concerned with branching out and adapting to reach the lost of today, and instead or more concerned with praying the lost will be more like those of yesterday.

Complacency and apathy is a dangerous attitude or emotion.

Full Definition of complacency

1: self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies.

2: an instance of usually unaware or uninformed self-satisfaction

Full Definition of apathy

1: lack of feeling or emotion 2: lack of interest or concern

These definitions are from the world and were taken from Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Complacency as we see in the definitions above, is when a person becomes satisfied with how things are. They are unaware and uninformed about what is around them. They don’t change or adapt or improve because they don’t see that need to or have any reason to.

You see, this doesn’t negate or falsify that dangers are around them. It doesn’t protect them from harm or from the brutality of life. The world and life is no respector of persons and it doesn’t care what state, standing or belief you are apart of; it will come for you just like it will anyone else. What protects us and keeps us safe, isn’t our ignorance or unwillingness but our God who is in Heaven. He is the mighty Warrior, the perfect King and the loving Father. He will come to our aid and He will fight for us, but we must let Him and trust in Him. We must know when the battle is at hand and when we must call on Him.

Additionally, apathy is lacking interest or concern. It is interesting how complacency can be grounded in ignorance while apathy can be grounded in concern. You see, complacency comes from us not knowing and lacking the desire to learn. Apathy comes from us knowing but having no concern or interest in what is at hand. Both of these behaviors and states of mind are dangerous and harmful, but they come from two different places. One could be argued to come from immaturity and the other maturity, although they can intertwine and overlap.

Coming back to the drafts for a moment, let’s talk about these two behaviors in light of a drafty home. Those who are complacent could be found accepting that every winter the house is cold. They don’t much care about why it is a cold because they don’t know what is causing the cold temperatures and are content with the conditions, beacuse it’s an old house and that’s just how its always been. They don’t see the need to check for drafts, nor do they see the reason to fix the colder tempatures, because they have learned to live with it and accept it.

Those who are apathetic on the other hand know exactly what is causing the house to be cold. They have been told and been shown there are drafts in the house, but remain unconcerned and uninterested in them. They too are fine with the house being colder and will instead buy a blanket, or turn the heat up higher, or just move their lounge spot to a warmer part of the room/house. These individuals don’t see the need to fix it or worry about it because it is insignificant and isn’t causing them any serious consequence, “it’s just a little draft, everyone has them.”

What they fail to understand is the consequences of a draft if they go untreated for a long time or are just neglected all together. You see, drafts don’t just magically appear and while it is most likely inevitable you will eventually experience a draft, they can be fixed and resolved. While the causes may vary, the one I want to focus on is air pressure and changes in temperature. One of the reasons someone may experience drafts in their home is because depending on the temperature, the pressure in the air can change and it can exert force or alleviate force on areas of the house.

Warmer air causes more pressure in the air and in less dense, furthermore, cooler air causes less pressure in the air and is more dense. It is interesting that during the study of this message, I learned that one method of measuring the difference in air pressures was using a barometer that measured the pressure by use of springs. The more it contracts, the more pressure and warmer it is. The more it expands, the less pressure and cooler it is.

Places commonly associated with drafts are windows and doors. I think about these areas and if you looks there is usually places of weakness, the spaces between the moving parts, that can slowly degrade over time. As the pressures change and these areas ever so slightly contract and expand due to the various pressures, they can develop tiny cracks allowing air to move through them, thus creating the draft.

The solution to this is to either reseal the weak area and/or insulate around the area better. Leaving it alone, however, is not a solution and the crack will consequently get worse and worse.

Conclusion

Why am I talking about all of this? I am bringing this up because if we are not careful and if we do not take the time to care for our home and our body, we will develop drafts, not just physically but spiritually. Developing a sense of complacency or apathy in our flesh will inevitably lead to us developing complacency and apathy in our spirit. If we begin to lack in either knowledge and awareness or interest and concern, we may find ourselves bruised and beaten. It is imperative that we stay not only vigilant but also aware of what is happening around us so that we know where the points of weakness exist.

It is imperative that we spend time in the Word and in prayer, so the Holy Spirit is given the freedom and ability to expose areas of weakness in our life and help us to better seal and insulate those areas.

Much like caulking and insulation is used to better seal and insulate your house, the word and prayer is used to seal and insulate your life. The drafts will come and the changes in pressure are beyond our control, but the integrity of our life is absolutely within our control. We have the power, the knowledge and the capability to control and remedy any spiritual draft that may develop in our life.

The Lord is always available to us and will always be there to help us and lend us a hand, all we have to is ask. He is the master inspector and the master builder. He was the one or laid our foundation and built our temple. He has all the power, all the interest and all the time to fix the areas that have weakened and begun to fail over the years of service and pressure.

Our job church is not to be the hero of every story, rather our job is to not get complacent or apathetic. We don’t have to be the one to fix everyone’s problems, but we sure can be the one to help and advise them.