A friend recently send me an article about the sin of slothfulness that was pretty dang good. While we don’t tend to talk about it very much, slothfulness is one of the seven deadly or cardinal sins (a list of sins that influence other sins that has been in the global church since the 4th century AD).
Sloth is the sin, according to Dorothy Sayers, “which believes nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and only remains alive because there is nothing it will die for.”
When thinking about slothfulness, one tends to think about someone who sits on a couch all days and does nothing. Yet, as the article author points out, “true slothfulness is easy to hide under a flurry of inconsequential activities and sudsy busyness.”
Yeah, you can be a busy, busy beaver and still be walking in slothfulness as you are just using your busyness to hide. Sort of like the Mayor of Flibber-o-loo who sings a ditty as he walks by a helpless lad stuck in a hole:
I’m busy, busy, dreadfully busy
You’ve no idea what I have to do.
Busy, busy, shockingly busy
Much, much too busy for you
Slothfulness comes into play when the children of God give up and stop trying to change for the world for Jesus. Instead of crying out for heaven to come down to earth as Jesus taught us to pray, we fall into a passive indifference to the evils of the world. We allow the little foxes of unforgiveness, jealousy, bitterness, and pride spoil the vineyard of the Lord.
Instead of sitting back in slothfulness and indifference, we should be stepping up to the plate and fighting the war that we have been called fight! We are to walk in forgiveness, grace, mercy, love and humility. We are to fight like Jesus did – turning the world upside down through our actions and words. Let’s repent of our slothfulness and get into the fray!
Yep, for those who can read and have read the gospel, you don’t see Jesus dragging though life like George Costanza in passive indifference to that which was good, bad and ugly. He saw the ideal and saw what was currently being played out on the planet and, being the unreasonable, hopeful rebel that He was, He got a whip and started clearing the punks. If it wasn’t right, then he felt compelled to correct it instead of slothfully standing by and just watching. (emphasis added by yours truly)
