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. I was at a conference yesterday and an expert panelist said something that really caught my attention: Sloth breeds sadness. He gave this illustration, "One time I played 11 straight hours of video games. After I was done I felt terrible for wasting so much of my time. That feeling of bitter loss is the result of sloth." This really got me thinking, "Is laziness dangerous for your emotional health? Is sitting a few extra hours binge watching your latest Netflix fix bad for you? Do we take leisure too serious?" I'm sure we do. And maybe sadness is intended to be our inward gauge to tell us when enough is enough? If that is true, the blues and early signs of depression may be given to me by God to wake me up so I will run from sloth? I never considered this before. In truth, I do see an awful lot of sad people walking out of movie theaters. I have seen many a downcast face sitting quietly on a comfy couch. I had a few sad college roommates who liked to skip class and sleep in. Sadness is a regular companion to the sedate. How many times have you looked forward to a Saturday or Sunday afternoon because your favorite team was on; or you couldn't wait to watch those rented videos, and then you became really bummed because before you know it, it is 8:00 pm and you wonder what happened to your day? The more I meditated on this the more I realized that sloth has also stopped me from embracing risk. It is easier to sit than to try. Sloth has made me the type of man who would rather watch a Turner Classic Movie, or another Twilight Zone episode than reaching out to my sad lonely friends who I know are also sitting around watching another installment of Mystery Science Theater. I think sloth has even whispered negative thoughts of failure when I considered doing something grand. I have yet to begin writing that book I always wanted to. Sloth has ruined my initiative to learn new things. Sloth has stolen years off of my life. Maybe I am just being too hard on myself, maybe I need to sit and veg while I think about this topic some more? No, darn it, no! I must speak truth, sloth is like a sickness in my bones always convincing me that "I can do what I want to get done tomorrow." My default mode is to err on the side of sloth. Sloth defined is "a reluctance to work or make an effort." My body has learned to hate making an effort. An object at rest stays at rest. My wife was exhausted the other day so I decided to do something unusual; cook and let her sit. Usually I will tell myself I have been working all day, I need to rest, and then surf the internet on my iPad to decompress. But on this particular day I decided to shut off my electronics, cook the food, talk to my daughter as we set the table and poured the drinks. Surprisingly after I got up and exerted a little effort, I felt great. Come to think of it, after I sit, instead of feeling refreshed, I often become more grumpy. I will even reach a point where I don't want to go to the table when the meal is ready because an object at rest...you know the rest. Is sloth dangerous or am I making a mountain out of a molehill? I will probably feel better after I just sit down and chill out. I am wearing a blue shirt.
2 Comments
Jim Lockwood
4/22/2015 01:58:26 am
Just read this scripture passage this morning. Slothfulness is something I have stamped out (I thought) several times. Maybe it comes back in different ways, or maybe I just recognize it for the first time in areas it's been in all along. Either way, my Father has a better way to live.
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Tommy
4/22/2015 08:54:29 am
This is very true. I went for my first spring on Sunday and I tell you what, this guy is out of shape. I was hurting and cramping, and walked a third of the way. As I was walking I thought of my devotional life and even simply being alight. I thought it might hurt for a while, being tired waking up early and so on, but we must press on. Thanks for the thoughts Chris.
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