complacency, noun. A feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.; inclination to please; complaisance.
There is a large problem of complacency – in Sacred Harp, in the churches, and in our country. One part of this is that we have created a societal value of “nice” (which intersects with outsized tolerance) and we have placed it above love and truth. We ought to be nice (amiably pleasant; kind), but somehow “nice” has become the highest goal for many. A way to illustrate and emphasize this is to think of two people asleep in their home and the home catches on fire. Our societal version of “nice” is like saying, “Oh, but I don’t want to bother them, they are asleep.” So, instead, we just let them burn to death! That’s actually not nice.
- Ephesians 4:15 …speaking the truth in love…
- 1 John 3:18 …let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
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