Laziness

“The way of the lazy is as a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway.” Proverbs 15:19

What does it mean to be lazy? Is it just lying around all day watching television and being completely inactive, or does it go deeper? Is being spiritually lazy just as detrimental as being physically lazy?

My husband and I visited a boarding house the other day while we were out working with a clothes ministry. We were bringing over a few additional items that were not available during their initial consultation. One of the people we were visiting had told him that she loved to read old Sunday School books and any other literature that she could get her hands on, so we found some stuff we had laying around the house to bring to her. The clincher was that she asked for a dictionary to help her when she reads the Bible because there are often words that she does not understand and she likes to look up the meaning. When I heard him tell me that, my eyes filled with tears and my heart filled with joy and sadness at the same time. Joy that the woman was reading the Bible, and sadness because so many of us take our education and abilities for granted. While we were talking to her at her home, she told us that she wanted to go to school so she could have homework! She said that she wanted to get her GED so she could have homework every night so she could learn more. The lady was plagued with a learning disability, but her excitement and desire to have homework and be able to get a job pierced my heart. Consider all of the people in the world who have the mental capacity to learn, are given the opportunity for an education, and they often squander it. I thought, “we should all be so eager to learn and work as this woman.”

I often consider all of the things the world has to offer these days to us to make our lives easier, faster, better, etc. From cliff notes to provide us with information so that we don’t have to read books to “bytes” of information to keep us from spending too much time truly learning about a topic. The abundance of resources to minimize the time we spend “working” on something is truly the work of Satan in our society today. Our physical and mental laziness had lead to our spiritual laziness and the lack of concern for the unsaved and broken hearted. Romans 12 says “never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord” (11). And Jeremiah writes “a curse on him who is lax in doing the Lord’s work!” (48:10).

Christians today often spend much time complaining about things that are wrong with society so there is not much time left to do anything to change or improve it. Paul writes to the Thessalonians “we hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat. And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right” (2 Thessalonians 3:11-13). Shall we settle down, earn our keep, and remember that our work here is to minister to the lost and the broken hearted? I believe we should. Let’s work to keep ourselves spiritually fervent, physically laboring, and always working to spread the Good News to those who need to hear it.