Lukewarmness

"So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth", says the Bible. Actually, I have never completely understood why it is better to be cold than lukewarm. After all, lukewarm is closer to hot than to cold, there is at least a little heat. Cold is lifeless; it means death, darkness and coldness. And yet the Truth is often found behind such apparent nonsense that requires further research...

As for the state of being, most people have no idea that there is a "hot" zone. Lukewarmness is a habit, a surety for them, which does not require much spiritual effort. They are "cocooned" like in sticky mud, where (apparently) nothing can happen to them, but nothing really new and good can come to them either (unless they open themselves – but that does not belong to lukewarmness). And the dark uses very skillfully that mud of lukewarmness. It is the zone of certain doom. Paradoxically, there is a greater chance to get on the path to the Light from the "cold" zone. Experiencing the horrors of evil, fall and dark of various kinds can arouse the self-preservation of man to save his own life. Abomination and disgust of all low can awaken his desire for the Light. Even if the journey has begun, it may not be successful. It all depends on the strength of man’s will and his determination. Chance of getting from "cold" zone is, I guess, 20 – 30 percent. Chance of getting from zone of lukewarmness is 1 – 5 percent (and I am still exaggerating).

The zone of lukewarmness is the most populated area and offers various options for the standard of living. Many roads on each side lead to it, from above and from bottom, but it has virtually no exits. If man enters (mostly he slips in unnoticeably, he does not even know how and when) the door closes behind him and there is just one knob – the outside one. So if he wants to get out of there he must either break the door (very thick and solid one) or climb the wall (very high and slippery one). Man who came “from above” and is not there for a long time, is agile enough to climb that wall relatively easily. If, however, he stays too long in the realm of lukewarmness he loses mobility and flexibility, he becomes lazy and climbing the wall seems impossible to him. When he attempts to climb the wall it costs him a lot of scratches and falls. What is more, when he really manages somehow to climb over the wall, it quite often happens that after initial starting up he quickly gets tired and he is no longer willing to seek the path; or at encountering first obstacles he loses confidence because he does not understand them. He does not even know how he gets lost and finds himself again in the bastille of lukewarmness, where the wide open door is waiting for him to be slammed shut right behind him. This is one of the worst properties of lukewarmness: it has a tremendously strong gravity.

How does such lukewarmness manifest itself in man? His life is mostly relatively peaceful, but it is only a state of spiritual sleep, state of inner immobility. Usually, he does not have to tackle any serious problems and fight for anything; and even if something happens, the newly restored state of calm gets him back where he was; that is the gravity of lukewarmness. (That such a quiet life is basically a great gift, he will understand – if he gets to understand – later ; that he could have used that time, when he was healthy and strong, for realization of many important things.). Everyday life becomes a monotonous routine for lukewarm man. Such a man is concerned mainly with himself, and for him this is a natural reaction, because his life seems unfulfilled to him. He does not consider it to be egoism. Conscience echoes in him forcing him to move. However, he has a feeling he won’t make it... and yet he would like to move, but he lacks the will. This causes him nervousness, anger or depression and bitterness. He does not experience happiness inside himself, but he only derives it from things and phenomena around him. He says he would be happy if: he has finally found his dream’s partner, if he had other job, if he was in other place, if he had been given the opportunity to learn new things, if something (person, events) returned from the past, or if he could skip timing and he was already in the future... He endlessly thinks about and ponders over all this, however, it brings nothing good to him; it just keeps him depressed. He does not understand why things and events around him happen as they happen and he does not even want to understand them. He feels like a victim, he complains about life and sometimes he also blames it, because things do not happen how he would like...

How does an escape from such a situation look like afterwards? Mostly, it is entertainment provided by television or (worse) escape through alcohol, surrounding oneself with fortune and technologies creating the illusion of sufficiency, games and events supposed to "lull", induce a false sense of joy and liveliness and to stifle conscience for a moment. But even so, the insistent inner voice catches up to him and roars inside him that "something" is still not right, that he is not really happy and that life is useless. And so he may try to change one of those outer things mentioned above, which may employ him for a while, however, heaviness of emptiness will be always with him and sooner or later it will echo inside him.

And so it goes, round and round, sometimes even whole lifetime.

Outwardly, it might seem that this man is very busy and travelled, but inside, he has not even moved. He has not gotten rid of any of his bad personality traits. He has not overcome anything. He has not experienced anything new. His experience and knowledge have not penetrated into his heart. He has not gotten anywhere, he is handcuffed. In a worst-case scenario, he considers the all spiritual to be unrealistic or ridiculous...

So far I have developed only one of the lines of lukewarmness. There are many of them. Each of us knows their own if they have experienced it. Many, however, remain passive in monotony. They reconcile themselves to lukewarmness. It even grows on them. They grant a privilege to it and they are completely bewildered if something disrupts it. So, even those apparently good people will not have the power to go to the Light at crucial moment and to stand up for it, because their spirit could not have grown and become stronger...

If you must fear something, do fear the lukewarmness. It is worse than physical death because the physical death is only a milestone on the road of life; lukewarmness is the spiritual death; it is decomposition. The ignorance, in which people stand outside the Truth, outside the life, ruins them, especially when they think they are even doing quite well. Lukewarmness is sticky, everything sticks to it. Lukewarmness prevents from seeing; it sees only its own fictional warped world of ideas.

Real world does not depend on outer things. They are just an external form serving only as a help to open the spirit. Actually, every minute represents such help, even with all the situations it brings. However, when we purposely want to evoke outer things (events, places, persons, objects and whatever else) to thrill and revitalize ourselves, it works only outwardly or it does not work at all, because we opt for wrong direction. We are the ones who thrill the things, not vice versa. What is given to us as a help, yet cannot be the primary thing – what is life about. Our heart, which is thrilled and matures into beauty through the experience of feelings, is what life is about. If we use the outer things as a crutch, while ignoring the spiritual side of life, it will never bring the fullness to us.

And how do we get out of the terrible vicious circle of lukewarmness? Open your heart. Live fully every moment life gives you. Do not close your eyes to situations which require more effort. First and foremost, sincere prayer for help and strength, from the bottom of your heart, in case of emergency and misery but also in happiness is efficient; because any real, honest and strong thrill of the heart does not remain unanswered and unheard...