Laziness

 

Are you a lazy person? I’m not talking about enjoying times of rest; we all need that. But rest is actually a break from activity. The lazy are inactive, so they cannot actually rest. The lazy are the people who would do anything to never have to do anything. When there is work to be done, they cannot be found. 

 

Solomon had nothing good to say about the lazy, and nothing but good to say about those who work hard. In Proverbs 6 he uses a loathsome insect as an object lesson, writing, “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 (v.6-8).” Solomon was right; as far as we know, ants have no overseers in the field making sure they do their work, yet off to work they go. To the best of our knowledge, there is no recourse for an ant not doing his job, but you will never see one lounging around with his feet up. In fact, ants can be seen carrying an astonishing fifty times their own body weight with just two arms. No wonder Solomon pointed to the ant as an example of work ethic.

 

Turning his attention back to the lazy person Solomon continued: “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 (v.9-11).” Ants always have plenty to eat because they work for it, but if the sluggard isn’t careful, he will walk to his pantry and discover its shelves to be bare. Poverty will come upon him like a bandit, and he will have no one to thank but his own inactivity. 

 

What have the lazy ever contributed to society? I have never walked through a museum and heard the tour guide say, “And in this room we have all the accomplishments of lazy people.” I have never seen a monument erected to honor a lazy person. There are no museums or monuments for the lazy. On the other hand, we honor people like George Washington and his men for crossing the Delaware because they were exhausted and low on rations. We honor people like Thomas Edison for not letting his earlier failures keep him from perfecting the lightbulb. When the going got tough, they pushed through. 

 

If you want to do something significant then you can’t be lazy. Aside from the fact that laziness is a poor testimony for Christians, it reduces our lives to insignificance. God made us on purpose for a purpose, and He expects us to work. If He was done with us He would have already called us to heaven, so as long as He leaves us here, we need to be busy.