Callouses

They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. -Ephesians 4:19

Callous. The word means being hardened and thickened, feeling no emotion, feeling or showing no sympathy for others. In the Greek the word can also mean apathetic. And this is one of the biggest problem I see amongst society as a whole and amongst believers. We live engrossed in a culture that has given itself up to sensuality. We live in a time where people are greedy, lusting after impurity in all its forms. And we ask ourselves why. What is the cause for this corruption of our thoughts and deeds? The answer is plainly written, "they have become callous." And so we have.
Our hearts have become hardened, we feel nothing, becoming numbed to it, we have no sympathy, we are apathetic. It is pathetic.
Look around, sex dominates. It is marketing gold! The sad part is that anyone who knows marketing knows that the reason it is everywhere is because it works. Sensuality has worked its way into ever facet of our society and the sad truth is not that we let it, but that we beg for it. We demand it with what we devote our time and money to. And all it does, aside from allowing lust to creep into our lives even easier than it can anyways, is create an image of beauty that no one can live up to. So we have a generation of women who cannot stand to look in the mirror. We have a generation of kids who kill themselves because they can't afford the right pair of jeans, and somewhere a marketer gets a raise for that. This world is driven by greed, lust, and all sorts of immorality.
Earlier this year we did an outreach type thing about the child sex trafficking that plagues this world and it still angers me to the point that murder seems justifiable. The thing that angers me the most is not simply that there is a supply of that, all of it, in the world, but that the demand is so damn high. Why don't we care? We as humans, we as believers, why doesn't this piss us off more? Are we that calloused?
"He has told you, O man, what you must do. And what does the Lord demand from you, but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God?" -Micah 6:8
Do Justice. At the very least we ought to care. When that apathy comes it, when we don't care that people hate themselves because they don't look like a photo shopped model, that should anger us. Instead we stare at that false image of beauty and declare that is what we want. We hold materials in front of us, letting that become who we are. And no one seems too bothered by it. It has become accepted. That is not right. I know I am not immune from this either, please don't get me wrong, I am as guilty as most and more so than many. But at least there are things that upset me to the point that I know I am not callous.
We need to feel. We need to believe in something bigger than culture. Because culture is the realm of the enemy who will use our apathy to spread sensuality and greed for immorality throughout the world, throughout our lives. I guess my plea in this would be that we all find something we are passionate and fight for it. If we want to take back the truth of beauty, then lets do it. No more fake plastic unrealistic touched-up beauty queens, but true beauty. That is worth fighting for. How about a world that isn't dominated by advertising and marketing, where multi-billion dollar corporations no longer have a say in what you think is cool or necessary. Or how about simply a world where people can act decent towards one another, love one another and help each other out with no ulterior motives? Wouldn't that be nice?
It isn't that hard. There is that cute little saying they have "be the change you want to see in the world." Just go out and do it. A cool idea I heard of, for example, is that when you are in the magazine aisle in a store and you see a picture on the front of a magazine that promotes a false beauty or is aimed at making you feel less attractive, or is just plain overly sexual, turn the magazine around so the back cover shows. Don't walk by unnoticing or ignoring anymore. Don't grow apathetic. Don't become calloused to the state of the world around us.
Be passionate for spreading the kingdom, in whatever shape that takes. But no matter what you do, I beg, just do something.