Indifference
Indifference is usually defined as a lack of concern or disinterest. It is viewed negatively. To be indifferent is to be 
callous or unfeeling toward others. This kind of indifference is, rightly, seen in a negative, pejorative light.
Over the last few weeks, I have been pondering the concept of freedom – true freedom. I’ve wondered what would it be like to be truly free to make choices and live without fear of consequences – things like what others might think or death or loss of something I value. In my reading and meditating one word has come up over and over again: indifference. In this case, indifference has a positive, spiritual sense. Let me explain.
Back during the Middle Ages, Ignatius of Loyola affirmed that human beings were created to love God with all their heart and soul through loving others. To be able to do this properly, he wrote, “it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent toward all created things…wanting and choosing only that which leads to the end for which we were created” (Spiritual Exercises 23 translated by George E. Ganss). He suggests that we will ultimately live best and will be happiest when we love one thing or more precisely some One. To do this we need “interior freedom” to be able to pursue that some One without distraction or competition. Hence we need indifference – indifference to everything that is not God; indifference to anything that is not God’s will; indifference to anything that prevents us from loving well.
Indifference, then, is defined as “being so passionately and single-mindedly committed, so completely in love, that we are willing to sacrifice anything, including our lives, for the ultimate goal” (Brackley, The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times, p. 12). In this context, the ultimate goal is loving God alone. Indifference then allows us to pursue that ultimate goal. It creates the freedom we need to actually move in that direction. Such indifference allows our hearts to reach a place where we can truly say with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, “not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). It allows our heart to be in quiet resolve in the midst of confusion and fright so we can resond in a similar way as Mary in Luke 1 when the angel told her she would have a child by the Holy Spirit, With a heart for God she said, “Behold, I am the servant[f] of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Whatever the Lord wants, no matter the personal cost, I accept.
When we reach a place of indifference, we are truly free to be used by God for his glory. Indifference is not an easy attitude to attain. The truth is we cannot, by our own effort alone, get to a place of true indifference. We need God’s help. It is a work of the Holy Spirit. But like many transformational attitudes, we can create space in our lives for him to do his work.
1. Pray. Ask God to give us a holy detachment; a true indifference to anything that is not his will; does not lead us to love him and others more.
2. Wait. It sometimes takes time for God to move in us to remove our attachments and bring us to indifference.
3. Seek. We can ask ourselves during this time what might be something that needs to die or something in me that stands in the way of my being open to God’s purpose or desire? Take time to quietly sit before the Lord and ask him to show you what might be keeping you from truly desiring his will above all else.
4. Love. Continue to love and worship God well studying his Word and doing all you know for certain you are to do. Keep pursuing him and loving others even as you pray, wait and seek indifference and true inner freedom.
Discerning Leadership?
Over the past two days, I’ve shared some thoughts and responses to Henri Nouwen’s book, In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership. In the first section of his book, Nouwen calls us to be leaders who are deeply connected to Jesus and lead out of that relationship, not according to corporate models or the desire for relevance. In the second section of the book, Nouwen calls for Christian leaders to lead from a place of vulnerability so they enter in and become part of the community. Our willingness to confess our sin, seek forgiveness and be honest about our doubts and struggles deepens our ministry to others even as it invites them to minister to us.
In the third and final section of the book, Nouwen says,
“One of the greatest ironies of the history of Christianity is that its leaders constantly gave in to the temptation of power – political power, military power, economic power, or moral and spiritual power – even though they continued to speak in the name of Jesus, who did not cling to his divine power but emptied himself and became as we are” (p. 76).
Somehow it has been believed by many leaders that power is a good thing and can be used for God’s glory. It reminds me of the rings of power in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Many thought they could use the ring for good, but its power corrupted them and wound up destroying the ring-bearer and those he led. It’s the same way in our age. Such power in the hands of Christians caused such things as the crusades, inquisition, slavery and so much more.
Nouwen says,
What makes the temptation for power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life. Jesus asks, “Do you love me?” We ask, “Can we sit at your right hand and your left hand in your Kingdom?” (Matthew 20:21) (p.77).
Not only is the path of power easier, it feels better. It feeds our egos. It builds our reputations. Humility and trust, submission and compassion take work because they are the path of the cross, the path of self-denial, the path of love. Instead of leading from power, we need to surrender ourselves that we might be led by Christ. “Jesus has a different vision of maturity: It is the ability and willingness to be led where you would rather not go” (p. 83). A Christian leader allows his or her agenda to be directed and controlled by the Holy Spirit. The leader develops a discerning and sensitive spirit that responds to God’s promptings so that the leader is really a follower of the true Leader. Says Nouwen, “Here we touch the most important quality of Christian leadership in the future…a leadership in which power is constantly abandoned in favor of love” (p. 82).
Nouwen suggests that leaders grow in this by “the discipline of strenuous theological reflection” which “will allow us to discern critically where we are being led” (p. 85). He believes the church has lost its ability to think theologically, preferring to think sociologically or psychologically instead. He wants leaders to have “the mind of Christ” Paul talks about. The goal of such theological reflection is to make God’s presence more real. It is to enable us to discern and understand where God is and what he’s doing in a specific situation.
Writes Nouwen:
To be such a leader, it is essential to be able to discern from moment to moment how God acts in human history and how the personal, communal, national, and international events that occur during our lives can make us more and more sensitive to the ways in which we are led to the cross and through the cross to the resurrection (pp. 86-87).
Theological reflection, believes Nouwen, has the ultimate goal of enabling us to see that “even the smallest event of human history…is an opportunity to be led deeper into the heart of Christ” (p. 88). Each day, we have the opportunity to pause and ponder the activities of our personal lives and all that has gone on around us. Where is God? What is he doing? How is he leading me deeper into his heart? How should I respond to his loving invitation?
As we ground ourselves in such reflection, we become leaders who are being led. We become leaders who can invite people into the a life-changing encounter with the God who loves them so much, he became one of them and died on the cross.
A Voice in the Desert 