The Familiar Leak

"In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments." — Luke 16:23 Imagine a family living in a house with a slow carbon monoxide leak. In the first week, they notice a mild headache. They attribute it to stress.

In the second week, the headaches are more frequent, but they have grown accustomed to them. By the third week, the headaches are entirely normal — they have forgotten what it felt like to not have them.

The carbon monoxide is not dramatic. It is quiet, gradual, and precisely because it is gradual, they never call for help. They have been trained by familiarity to accept a condition that is killing them.

Morrison's sermon on "The Fatal Power of Inattention" is one of the most sobering in the collection. His text is Luke 16:23 — the rich man in torment, who "lifted up his eyes." In life, he had never truly looked.

He had walked past Lazarus at his gate every day without truly seeing him. He had lived in luxury without once asking what ultimate reality demanded of him. He was not malicious — he was simply inattentive.

Spiritual inattention is not dramatic. It does not announce itself. It is the slow accumulation of days in which the important things were not attended to — the prayer that was always going to happen tomorrow, the relationship with God that was permanently in the "pending" column, the spiritual warning that was processed intellectually but never acted on.

In eternity, the rich man finally lifted his eyes — and saw with terrible clarity what he had never taken time to see in life: the reality of Lazarus's suffering, the reality of his own condition, the reality of the impassable distance between them.

Attention in eternity is permanent. Inattention in time is chosen. Hebrews 2:1 warns: "We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." The Greek word for drifting is used of a boat that slips its anchor not in a storm but in calm water — simply through neglect.

The most dangerous spiritual condition is not active rebellion but passive drift. 🪞 Reflect on this: Is there a spiritual warning, conviction, or prompting you have been hearing but consistently failing to act on?

In what area of your spiritual life have you become so accustomed to a slow compromise that you no longer notice it? Who in your life is your "Lazarus" — someone you pass regularly without truly seeing?

👣 Take a Step Action: The Attention Audit Identify one thing God has repeatedly brought to your attention that you have repeatedly deferred. Today, do the thing you have been putting off. Say: "Lord, give me eyes that truly see — others' need, my own condition, and Your clear call.

Deliver me from the fatal power of inattention."