This is what Jeremiah said in Lam:4:1How the gold has become dim! [How] changed the fine gold! The stones of the sanctuary are scattered At the head of every street. at a very sad time in Israel's history. She had rejected her warning from the prophet against idolatry and fallen into a process of national profanity against her God. The sacred items of the temple were now being peddled in the streets and being used as 'common' items.

How often Christians treat sacred things this way. What ought to be regarded as being for God alone is peddled away; this is the essence of profanity. We begin using the sacred for the mundane. "How the gold has become dim!" the prophet declared.

The pattern I notice so often is that a believer will begin to regard what ought to be honored and esteemed as "run of mill" or mundane. A spouse can be treated this way. A person you once would climb any mountain for, you'd like to throw off a cliff! This doesn't just happen overnight. When the fellowship I once loved and cherished is just not as important as other details, when prayer is something that I'll "get to a little later", I have started down a road that leads to a dead end. How the gold has become dim.

It seems to start off as complacency. "I'm ok with this foul mood" or "I'll accept this state of my soul". This is the innocent-looking departure that leads to profanity. Then, complacency leads to mediocrity. Now, I do just enough to get by and pray for my needs, and not much else. "Sure, I love souls, but you won't find me passionately praying for them, or getting creative, or going out of my way to win one."

Several years ago we moved into an old school building in town. The rooms were dark, the lighting was dim, the floors were dull and there just wasn't a whole lot of decorating that one could do to bring it alive. I remember coming in one day and look around the office and thinking, "This paint is ugly, the walls are bare, and the floor is filthy. What have I become?" So I painted, put up a border and decided that I would do the best I could with where I was! It was easy to slide into mediocrity from complacency.

Eventually, if you sit in mediocrity long enough, you'll become profane. The gold will get very dim, and what is sacred and intended for His pleasure alone, will be sinfully and selfishly squandered away. May God help us to identify the beginning stages of complacency and may we his people stay passionate and full of fire about the things of God!