One of the most troubling conditions in man is spiritual apathy. This is when a person exhibits indifference to spiritual truth or the pursuit of a relationship with God. It represents a state of emotional or intellectual disinterest in God. What people don’t realize is that spiritual apathy, if allowed to take root, often leads to devastating consequences.

You see this in several of Jesus’s parables where a king prepares a banquet and he sends his servants to invite people in his kingdom to join in this lavish banquet. But they refuse, they are preoccupied with worldly distractions and showing no interest in what the king offers.

Personally, I think spiritual apathy is rampant in our land today. There are so many people who are indifferent to God and the ultimate spiritual issues of life.

Blaise Pascal, the famous French mathematician and philosopher was mystified that his wealthy friends had no concern for their spiritual lives. He put it this way:

The immorality of the soul is something of such vital importance to us, affecting us so deeply, that one must have lost all feeling not to care about knowing the facts of the matter. Our chief interest and chief duty is to seek enlightenment on this subject, on which all our conduct depends. And that is why, amongst those who are not convinced, I make an absolute distinction between those who strive with all their might to learn and those who live without troubling themselves or thinking about it. This negligence in a matter where they themselves, their eternity, their all are at stake, fills me more with irritation than pity; it astounds and appalls me; it seems quite monstrous to me.

For the spiritually apathetic, it is not so much that they don’t believe, but that they are not interested in trying to determine what is spiritually true. They just don’t care. The cost of ignoring this pursuit is a spiritual emptiness that can have eternal consequences.

Richard E Simmons III is the founder and Executive Director of The Center for Executive Leadership and a best-selling author.