"Livin In Laodicea!"

The title is loosely taken from a line in a Steve Camp song. The line goes like this, "I've been living in Laodicea..." It seemed somewhat applicable to my life right now. Laodicea, one of the seven churches of Asia addressed in Revelation. It is a church that nauseated the King of Kings. A literal rendering of the phrase "spit you out of my mouth" is "I will vomit you out of my mouth." I am not real sure but I believe that my life of late would give Jesus more than just the dry heaves. The thought of my failures turning his stomach makes me deathly ill.

I find that I have taken up residence in the kingdom of apathy. And I have even become one of its leading citizens. As the mayor of Apathy my quest is do just enough to get by. One should never go the extra mile unless others are watching or perhaps the newspapers and media are recording their actions. It has been said that the opposite of love is not hate but apathy. If this is true then I have become the emperor of Apathy, the king of lukewarm.

How simple it has become to make alliances with the surrounding nations on the continent of mediocrity. Negotiating treaties that laud the virtues of compromise and concession. I have become an expert at giving up and giving in. Just call me Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the land where appeasement has become the coin of the realm. I have become a shinning example of the old adage, "the only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." I wonder if one who does nothing could still be considered a good man? Would a good man really do nothing in the face of pain, suffering and lost souls? I am reminded that Jesus, "went about doing good." I should be troubled by that reminder. Here I am a mediocre man ruling a mediocre land making treaties with a mediocre band of lukewarm vagabonds. Miserable wretches who are more than happy to simply exist on the crumbling the continent of mediocrity, rather than truly living.

An alien resident of a barren and desolated planet whose surface is marred by hot dusty winds of compromise and storms of despair that ionize the atmosphere of this alien world. In the midst of this hostile environment I have become much too comfortable. This tepid world devoid of moral and ethical structure, this modern Sodom, is beginning to feel too much like home. Livin' in Laodicea I have become an arrogant individual who believes himself rich and in need of nothing, but who is in reality a hopeless street urchin, a miserable vagrant begging soup. A troubled soul in need of redemption.

It is half past time for leavin' Laodicea. "I'm going home on the mornin' train.."
Leavin' Laodicea.

Just some things to think about along the way.

Bob