Are You Lazy? Proverbs 6: 6-11

In this series we are examining the disparity between the life that Christians ought to be living and the life we actually live. Jesus promises us abundant life in John 10:10,  

“The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I come that you might have life, and have it abundantly.”

 What are the “thieves” that destroy our lives? In this series, we look at what the Bible says about seven of them—the “seven sinister sisters”-- fear, anxiety, hopelessness, laziness, jealousy, perfectionism, and individualism.

Today’s topic is laziness.

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“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?

‘A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,’ and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.” Prov. 6:6-11

Are you lazy? Some days, I think I am.  Other days, I think I’m not. Which is the truth?

One thing I know, whether or not we are lazy has nothing to do with how I feel about it.

Some of the most active people I know think they are lazy. On the other hand, some of the laziest people I know think they are overworked. We cannot go by how we feel. What makes a person lazy or industrious is not how we feel about it, but whether or not we are doing our job. 

Suppose you need to pay your bills, but instead you go out and jog two miles. Are you lazy or not lazy? Or suppose you go out and mow your lawn when you feel like sitting and watching television.  Are you lazy, because you feel like resting?  Laziness is what we do or not do, and it is not what we feel or not feel. 

Laziness is a complicated issue. There is no one cause for it, but many. Some of the most common reasons for laziness are listed below:

Fear. One of the most common reasons we procrastinate is because we are afraid that we will not perform our job correctly, or that we can’t do it. Anxiety builds up inside, until it becomes a barrier to starting. Or our fear so weighs us down that we might not be doing well, and we want to stop. 
Fear is not just of doing poorly. We often fear doing something well. To do something right means that more will be expected of us. This fear of accomplishment stops many of us in our tracks.

A divided mind. Sometimes we don’t begin our task for a reason we don’t admit, because we just don’t want to do it. If we are constantly putting something off we need to do, then it may be a signal to us that maybe we don’t need to do it at all. We should reexamine our motives to see if our heart is really in what we are putting off.

Disorganization. This is really laziness of the mind. When we are disorganized, it is because we have put off organization. The first part of every task is to decide when and how we are going to do it. We must first put a job in its proper place before we do it. Many people are hard workers with the bodies, but poor workers with their heads. They only work well if someone else is telling them what to do.

Fatigue. Let’s face it, we sometimes are lazy just because we haven’t had enough rest. We don’t know how to pace our work and our rest, so we “burn out.”  Not taking our time off may seem like being busy, but it’s really asking for trouble. The time can come when we need to be active, and we have no energy left.

Fantasy. Our modern culture has found a way of making us feel better about laziness. It’s called fantasy. I don’t mean simply people who like fantasy books or video games, but a mass media culture which gives us a steady diet of television, books, movies, and video games. These devices create in us the feeling of accomplishment or success, while guaranteeing our failure.

Let me illustrate what fantasy is. When men are young they play sports. Then, when they get older they start watching sports, and when they see someone on a field hitting home runs or running touchdowns, then they get the same feeling of accomplishment they got when they used to exercise regularly. Yet they get no physical or mental benefit from it. We have imagined ourselves as athletes, but get no benefit from it.

People get lost in television, video games, books, or movies with equal enthusiasm. Yet when we are caught up in the fantasy, we are actually doing no good. We are being lazy, and we are caught in the illusion of activity without any accomplishment whatsoever.

The result of laziness is always that we fail to accomplish anything. In doing so we let down God, others, and ourselves.

We let down God, because we do not use the gifts God gave us. God has a plan for our lives. He also has a great plan for the church. When we do not participate in that plan, then we are letting God down.

We let down others, because they depend upon us. James writes of Christians who say to people in need, “Be warm and be fed,” yet do nothing to help them. No one cares about our good intentions unless we are ready to back our good intentions with action. Laziness robs us of action.

We let down ourselves, because we do not accomplish what we might. We wind up following an easy path that leads to nowhere.

How do we stop being lazy? Here are some suggestions that can help.

Stop regretting. Do not waste one moment in regret or remorse. Regret and remorse adds to our anxiety, and worsens our laziness. Jesus died on the cross to pay for all our transgressions, and to give us a new start in life. To look back on our sins, and wallow in regret is to deny the gift of God’s forgiveness. God’s love is a free gift. In Christ’s eyes, your life begins today, not yesterday. The only thing that matters is not what you did yesterday, but what you do today.

Practice Sabbath. God established a pattern of life in Genesis--six days you shall labor, and the seventh you rest. Don’t work all the time. Work six days and be off one day. Keeping the Sabbath refreshes our lives, and helps keep us diligent.  

Seek an active life. Avoid the kind of recreation that does not involve doing something with our minds, bodies, or spirits. Ecclesiastes tells us that there is nothing better in life than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in work. Work is not something we do for pay, but a way of life. It gives our lives meaning.

Do something active in your off hours. Plant a garden, decorate a room, take up jogging, learn a musical instrument, a new language, or go back to school. There are no limitations on any of these just because we are older. We all need to live more vigorous, productive lives. 

Know your goals and your limitations. This involves the hardest kind of work you will ever do, which is thinking. What are you trying to accomplish? Do you have a purpose statement for your life?  Does it involve your life today?  Are you working for that purpose?

Know your limitations as well. What can you realistically do where you are at? Give yourself permission to work within your limitations. You may have to adjust our expectations, but mostly upward. As you seek to accomplish what you feel you can now discover that there is more you can accomplish. 

Eliminate fantasy and distractions. Not being lazy really isn’t about doing more, but doing less. It is substituting what is good for what isn’t.  When we engage in fantasy, and spend hours in front of a TV, video game console, or with a book in our hands in mindless entertainment, then we may find it hard to stop. If you can’t think of anything to do instead of watching television, you should turn off the TV.  It mean you have become addicted. 

Laziness isn’t a feeling, but a disordered life. It is not living the life in its fullness that God has for us to live. Thoreau once said that he wanted to live his life to such a degree that when he died, he would not discover he had never lived. Laziness is the thief of life. When we yield to it, a part of us dies, even while we live. When we resist it, then we find that life has more to offer us than we can possibly imagine.