ANCIENT WORDS, MODERN WORLD WEEK 2: WAKE UP! (JOEL)

Complacency kills! This is a statement that many of us have probably heard, but what does it mean? How does that short statement affect our lives?

The statement—"complacency kills”—is a foundational military mantra warning that a lack of vigilance, overconfidence, and failure to follow safety procedures causes unnecessary combat deaths and operational failures. It emphasizes that routine tasks require continuous attention, as danger often arises when service members let their guard down. This can result in fatal missteps, operational failure, and neglected safety procedures that can all lead to unnecessary and avoidable casualties.

Everything in our world wants to move toward equilibrium and status quo, maintaining what we have rather than continuing to move and grow toward where we need to be. Because of this dynamic, we can easily be lulled into complacency and stop caring. We begin to value comfort above all else, and that will always result in drift. Nothing in life stays static. It will either progress or it will regress, and this regression is exactly what complacency brings about.

When this sets in, we begin to settle, believing that nothing can change. We begin to change our habits, neglecting our time with God. Prayer becomes secondary, time in God’s Word shifts to being “as needed” (or even unnecessary), and ultimately this drift causes us to become blind to what is brewing around us that wants to bring us down, shifting our worship away from God and focusing on what is wrong around us.

But God isn’t content to leave us there. God will disturb what we worship if it keeps us from worshipping him. God wants to pour out his Spirit, but he is asking us to open our hearts and to pour them out before him. His greatest desire is that we worship him, and that through that worship, we are drawn closer in our relationship with him.

So, what are you worshipping? What has gotten in the way of your worship of God and has caused complacency in your life right now? You don’t return because you’re scared; you return because God is merciful. Open your heart to him and let him restore your life.