What do you envision when you think of “lazy” or “laziness?” Someone who is apathetic, idle, indolent, inattentive, indifferent, and out of it? Or a person that is careless, lifeless, lackadaisical, or lethargic? [https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/lazy] We have all known people that fall into this category. And I am willing to bet that all of us can be identified by one of these adjectives at some point in our lives.
As a child, I remember waking early on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons. I was diligent about my laziness! My goal was to watch them all morning and then do nothing. But my dad had another vision for my Saturday that did not include wasting my God-given day; we had chores to complete! There went my lethargy. As a young adult, I soon became inattentive to my spiritual walk, opening myself up to fall into sin. My lackadaisical attitude toward God and life yielded an apathetic existence with full exposure to the enemy of my soul.
Laziness is NOT Doing Nothing
While laziness has a connotation of doing nothing, in actuality, lazy people are disciplined people. They are diligent in areas that primarily benefit themselves. If you consider moments when you were lazy, you were doing something. You were sleeping, watching TV, playing games, etc. – all selfish endeavors. I would venture to say that laziness could be defined as the selfish actions of an individual exhibited through withholding value from others. The parable of the talents provides a great demonstration of this.
Laziness with Talents
As described in Matthew 25, a business owner had three employees working for him to whom he delegated revenue (or talents). He gave $5 million to one employee; for the other two, he gave $2 and $1 million, respectively. The owner allocated the revenue based on the employee’s ability, and the employees all understood that the owner was austere and “hard.” After a long time, the owner returned and performed a business analysis of his profit margins. The first and second employees were able to double the owner’s returns and were awarded accordingly. The third employee, allocated $1 million, opted to hide the money in a safe rather than assume any risk that may earn a return. When the owner learned of his meager ROI (return on investment), he was perturbed. Why? The employee demonstrated supreme laziness and presumptuousness when he valued his safety and poor investment choices over the risk of facing the owner’s hardness. He withheld from the owner what was valued in exchange for something less.
How often do we do this as humans? The Lord desires us to walk in faith in certain areas of our lives, and we bury our talents and abilities. We exchange discipline for dessert, fear for faith, working doubt for working out, and a feeble attempt at a difficult task for resolute persistence. We hear the “still small voice” insist that we overcome a besetting sin while our own “imbalanced large voice” gives excuses for our domesticated iniquity. We reason that a bit of leaven is ok. We lie to ourselves, “Nobody is perfect. we are all going to sin.” Friend, this abominable thought process is pure laziness.
Martha's Laziness
Martha and Mary in Luke 10 are also good examples of misplaced value. Martha opened her home to Jesus and the disciples and proceeded to serve them. Mary, her sister, sat at the Lord’s feet and soaked up his teaching and presence. Martha was so distracted “serving the Lord” that she spent little time with Him. She did, however, manage to verbalize a complaint to him: “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me.” She had Jesus in her house; she could have fellowshipped with him and spoken with him regarding many things. But she chose to complain of her sister’s alleged laziness! This demonstrates that you can be in God’s presence and still have misguided focus.
Jesus responded in verse 41, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful; Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.” There is another lesson here regarding servants of the Lord. Whether you are a pastor or street preacher, it is possible to be so busy with the “Lord’s work” that you totally miss the Lord. You haven’t been in his presence. You haven’t spent time in His word. You have been so busy working for him that you no longer know Him. And, hence, he doesn’t know you. You, my friend, are in jeopardy of the Lord saying on that fearful day, “Depart from me; I never knew you.”
The Solution
What is the solution? How do we ensure we are diligent about the right things rather than slothful servants?
- Know His Word. If our actions are not aligned with the Bible, chances are I’m walking in selfishness and, hence, laziness.
- Fall in love with Jesus. If we love Him, we will want to follow Him over everything else and love our neighbors as ourselves.
- Fellowship with rightly aligned brothers and sisters. Birds of a feather flock together. If you want to be wise, be with wise people. If you want to be bitter, be with bitter people. And if you want to be aligned with Jesus, fellowship with others congruent with Him.
When our activities are centered on self, chances are high that we are misaligned with Jesus and withholding value from others. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. (Matthew 16)
