Jump Start # 781

Proverbs 21:25-26 “The desire of the sluggard puts him to death, for his hands refuse to work; all day long he is craving, while the righteous gives and does not hold back.”

Our verse for today highlights one of the many contrasts found in Proverbs. Here, it is the sluggard or the lazy man contrasted with the righteous. Laziness is not a virtue. It is not a quality of character. The sluggard has desires. Everyone does. Everyone has dreams, goals and hopes. But reality is lacking for the sluggard. His desires are never fulfilled because he refuses to work. He is waiting for someone or something to improve his life. Success without effort doesn’t exist.

The sluggard would love to lose weight, but that takes effort. He’d love to save money, but that means sticking to a plan. He’d like to improve his education, but that means reading and going back to school. He’d like to do better, but it’s not worth the effort. So he stays where he is at.

I know some people like that. They aren’t 100% lazy but they lack the drive to improve themselves. They complain about their situation and at first you feel sorry for them. You offer suggestions and ideas that would open doors for them, but they never seem interested in those things. That would mean more effort and they don’t want that. So they remain. It seems the world passes them by. They complain that they couldn’t go to college or they couldn’t do this or that, all the while dreaming, wishing and desiring a better way.

There are some churches like this as well. The leadership tends to be stuck. Very little seems to be going on. They complain about not having enough money to do things, or being small or being this or being that. They’d like to have the classes, the literature, the activities of other congregations, but that takes effort. It takes someone planning and doing. It takes time. They don’t want to do that. So they fold their hands and complain.

I guess it may be my personality, the way God wired me, but I have a hard time being patient with those who refuse to improve themselves. Their desires are pipe dreams that will never be fulfilled because they don’t want to do anything.

I’m not sure where laziness comes from, what the cause it. It may be from one’s up bringing.   Having the kids do things and expecting them to keep up with things may be the ticket that keeps them from being lazy. It may be that some parents want their child to have fun all the time and to be happy all the time, so they allow them to grow up without any responsibilities, jobs to do around the house, and any accountability. Without realizing it, they allow them to grow lazy. Mom is in the kitchen cooking, while the kids are watching TV. As soon as dinner is over, mom cleans up the kitchen while the kids return to the TV. Mom does the laundry while the kids are watching TV. She puts the clothes away in their room while they are watching TV. Dad shovels snow in the winter and cuts grass in the summer while the kids are inside watching TV. Do you see something wrong with that picture? For an outsider, it would appear that Mom and Dad are working for the kids or are the servants of the kids. There’s time for TV. But it’s hard for me to enjoy a show when someone else is around doing work. It makes me feel guilty. Why not help the other person out and then both of you can watch a show together. While mom is cooking, the kids set the table. While mom is washing the dishes the kids are drying. While mom folds the clothes, the kids put their own clothes away. These things should be done without paying the children. Does mom get paid to cook dinner? Does dad get paid to cut the yard? The kids should do things without pay as well.

Laziness happens spiritually as well. There is a question we have about a passage. It is so easy to ask someone, especially the preacher, for the answer. I delight when some asks me, after they have done some thinking, research and studying first. They want a perspective that maybe they haven’t considered. They are gathering infor. That is so different, from the person who is lazy and doesn’t want to look up passages. Just tell me what it means. We can get used to being spoon fed, even spiritually. Learn to study. Learn to think. Learn to dig and work. Where do you think the preacher gets his answers? Could it be that we want him to do the work and just tell us the results?

The poor sluggard…he has desires but he will not work. Unless he changes, he will be that way all of his life. He needs to get up, get at it and get busy. It’s the “gettin” part that he lacks. His only hope is when he get tired of things the way they are. When he gets tired of what he sees in the mirror, he might do something. When he gets tired of being broke, he might do something. When he gets tired of never knowing things spiritually, he just might do something.

What makes dreams come true is the doing part.

Roger