Above All Else: From Sloth to Zeal
About this episode
Grant Clark discusses the concept of sloth, or acedia, exploring its deeper spiritual implications and how it manifests in our lives.
In our ongoing series Above All Else, Grant Clark turns to the seventh and most misunderstood of the deadly sins: sloth. Far from simple laziness, sloth -- or acedia -- is a spiritual apathy and quiet resistance to Jesus that can live just as easily in the heart of the overachiever as in the one on the couch. "Acedia is ultimately a failure of love. It's a place of apathy toward life and a kind of spiritual boredom... Whether midday, midlife, halftime or halfway through a big project, we're tempted to give in, give up or distract ourselves. Acedia tempts us to abandon the life we have for some imagined better option somewhere else -- as in 'anywhere but here'! Acedia can also be the temptation to live our lives in imagined fantasies of what might be rather than living in the gift of what is." - Alan Fadling (An Unhurried Life) What is acedia? - The Cambridge Dictionary defines sloth as "an unwillingness to work or to make any effort" -- but the biblical concept runs far deeper - Derived from the Greek a ("not") + keedos ("to care") -- acedia is a failure of love, a resistance to the transformation God is calling us into - Pope John Paul II defined acedia as "a sadness arising…
More episodes of Restored Church
- Above All Else: From Greed to Generosity
- Above All Else: From Lust to Love
- Above All Else: From Envy to Contentment
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