One of the most haunting books I have ever read is Jon Krakauer's account of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, Into Thin Air.
There are many moments in that book that stayed with me, but one in particular came back to mind as I read Chapter 17 of The Call. A climber described what happens when exhaustion reaches a certain point. Physical fatigue eventually becomes mental fatigue. Judgment weakens. Motivation disappears. The goal that once seemed so important begins to lose its meaning.
Then he made a statement that I have never forgotten:
"It is so pleasant to sit doing nothing—and therefore so dangerous."
That sentence captures something that Os Guinness is trying to address when he discusses sloth.
Most of us hear the word and immediately think of laziness. We picture someone sleeping late, avoiding responsibility, or refusing to work. There is certainly some truth in that image, but Guinness argues that sloth is actually much deeper than simple laziness.
He describes it as a spiritual condition.
Sloth is not merely the refusal to work - It is the temptation to stop caring.
That strikes me as one of the great dangers of the second half of life.
By this point, most of us have experienced disappointments. Some dreams never happened. Some goals were missed. Some relationships became difficult. Some battles were harder than we expected.
And if we are not careful, we begin lowering our expectations. Not because we have become wiser, but because we have quietly given up.
Dorothy Sayers described it as:
"The sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing..."
That is a frightening description because it is possible to be very busy and still be guilty of it.
A person can work all day, maintain a schedule, pay the bills, and still slowly lose the sense that anything matters.
What struck me reading this chapter is how often Scripture connects spiritual vitality with faithfulness in small things.
Jesus says:
"One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much."
The older I get, the more convinced I become that many great failures begin as small acts of surrender. We stop reading. We stop praying. We stop serving. We stop learning. We stop caring.
One of the reasons I continue writing these reflections, reading books, listening to music, pursuing new projects, and trying to grow is that I never want to lose that sense of holy curiosity. I do not want to spend the latter chapters of life merely maintaining existence.
As part of this June Tune-Up, it may be worth asking a simple question:
What have I stopped caring about that God still cares about?
The answer may reveal more than we realize.
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