Listless?

One day this week, the internet went down at the church. I decided to work from home. It was not my best effort. All day long the household dragged my mind away from church affairs. There were bills to pay. Dishes to put away. Appointments to make. I couldn’t focus on the task at hand, sermon writing. In fact, I had three writing assignments: the sermon, a report to the session, and this article, and the last two I’m turning in late! I experienced the weird combination of boredom, distraction, and fatigue I frequently felt during the pandemic lockdown. 

There’s a word for the listlessness I was experiencing: acedia. It’s a hard-to-translate Greek word that can mean torpor, restlessness, or discontent. In the early days of the monastic movement, a monk named Evagrius identified acedia as one of the eight bad thoughts that bedevil monks. 

Imagine: you got up with the sun. You said your prayers. You read something devotional in nature. You weaved some baskets to exchange for bread at the market. Now it’s 10:00 AM. The sun is high, and it seems to be standing still. The heat is rising. You wonder, will this day ever end? What have I gotten myself into by committing to this life? I’m bored stiff! What should I do? Say the same old prayers again? Ugh!

To overcome this state, Evagrius recommended perseverance, reading the Bible, crying, and manual labor. Tears get the anger, sadness, and regret out of you. The Bible contains stories of others in the desert who struggled and overcame. Manual labor will tire you out, and after a well-deserved nap, you’ll discover that the sun hasn’t stood still after all! By accident, I took up perseverance to get me out of my funk. The sermon writing went very slowly, but I gutted it out, and at the end of the day, it was done. I would have liked to have gotten more done, but at least I’m more-or-less ready for Sunday. 

Have you ever experienced acedia, or what Evagrius called “the noonday demon?” What have you done to battle that demon? Let me know: MLindsay@HaddonfieldPres.org.