I have sin in my life for which I am unaware, but recently I learned a term for sin for which I should have previously been aware – acedia.
Acedia is a spiritual state characterized by a lack of interest in or aversion to spiritual tasks and a general sense of listlessness and despair. Different from physical inactivity, ‘acedia’ is a spiritual malaise that can manifest as boredom, restlessness,and a general sense of emptiness. Are you familiar with this sin? Do you see it in those around you?
How should we go about mortifying the sin of acedia? One of the goals of classical Christian education is to live in accordance to the truth of our being. We are created in God’s image with body, mind, and soul intrinsically interconnected to engage the world and others as they really are. To mortify the sin of acedia we must start seeing, seeing things as they really are. When students are trained how to ‘see’ in the truest sense, they will leave acedia in the dust as they passionately pursue the good, true and beautiful.
Progressive education has been disconnecting reason from emotion and fact from value. It has effectively produced life-long knowers instead of life-long learners which in turn produced the vice of curiosity; a thirst for knowledge disconnected from lived out experience. We all need a deeper contemplation of the triune God in every discipline of learning where our souls are enriched and deserts irrigated.
“From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.”
John 6:66
Were these disciples just fickle or did they refuse to see, really see, Jesus for who he is? Only those who truly behold the LORD of Glory will have the wisdom to follow; simply knowing about Jesus is a recipe for the outright rejection of Jesus. In a very true way, a rejection of Christ is a rejection of all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Col.2:3b
Talk with your family about the ravages of acedia and start to put it to death by seeing Jesus.
