Sloth, Not the Animal Kind
November 3, 2009
Sloth, Not the Animal Kind
My goal in this article is to make you aware of what sloth is and help you examine your life in light of it. The next article will bring the antidote to this deadly way of life called sloth.
When God received me into his kingdom through his enabling faith, he blessed me with his grace: his favor, and his enabling power to do what I am not able to do in my own strength. He helped me understand that I had one new life to live and give. I, on my side, determined to make my life count, to focus on what matters. That took some time. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, a deep yearning within, and desire to give my life to the things that matter to God, I settled on the pursuit of God’s kingdom and his righteousness.
But the tyranny of the urgent has its ways and its powers. The bearish claws of the affairs of this world create deep ruts in the soul. The “jaws” of sloth grip the heart until death slowly makes life leak out of us. Sloth, Jeff Cook says, “is indifference toward our souls” and the things that matter to God. Sloth is apathy (lack of passion) toward God, his kingdom, and his life. Sloth is laziness toward and neglect of the eternal in favor of the trivial.
Jesus was deeply concerned during his life on earth with sloth. He spoke of it in many of his parables. I mention only three here: the parables of the talents, the banquet, and the sheep and goats. This is a good stopping point. Take time and read those parables: Matthew 25:14-30; Matthew 22:1-14; Matthew 25:31-46.
A talent (an amount worth 20 years of work—half of our working lives) represents the life that God gives us and expects us to invest in knowing Him, and in readying the world for his coming. A slave’s freedom could be bought for a talent. Jesus would make us understand that a talent is the freedom we have to invest in what matters to God. One of the slaves took his life and did nothing with it. His apathy, his sloth, his indifference to his soul, earned him these awful sounding words: “Throw the worthless slave outside, into the darkness.”
Sloth, in Jesus’ eyes, is our failure to maximize our pursuit of God’s kingdom and embedding his righteousness deep into our souls. Apathetic inactivity, and purposeless waiting displeases God. As we wait for his return, we take the life given to us (grace, mercy, joy, love, hope, and faith) and wisely multiply it in God’s kingdom.
The king in the second parable invited many to his son’s wedding banquet. He was stood up. Then the streets were combed and the needy were invited. One deigned come without the proper attire for the wedding celebration. His sloth was evident in his laziness to dress for the wonderful event. The king condemns him with these awful words: “tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness.” He lacked the passion for life (the banquet) that the king has! Sloth is indifference to the life of God, with God, and for God!
The third parable, the one about sheep and goats, describes those who, at the judgment, gave a cup of water, fed the poor, visited the prisoner, and helped the widow, in his name. They represent those who are passionate about the life of the kingdom. The ones “who are cursed, and must depart from him” are the slothful, the ones our Lord did not know. They see brothers and sisters of king Jesus, but like the Priest and the Levi, go on their merry way, the broad way, which leads to destruction.
The servants that invested their lives, the banquet guests who came dressed to celebrate life with God, and the lovers of the poor and the needy, are passionate people who have rejected sloth as a way of life. They have said no to the minimum and yes to the maximum they can do for, with, and in God. They are willing to be maimed for God rather than enter unblemished into insignificance. They have said yes to a passion to love and walk with God and to love and serve others. The others were shown the door.
I for one do not wish to hear the awful words. Not from my Lord. Sloth buries the life our beautiful and good God wants us to invest in his world. He is coming back to renew it, recreate it, to make it habitable for himself eternally. May he find us passionate about Him, his kingdom, and about “putting this world to rights” in his name! Those who walk with the Master would not want it any different!
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Hmmm, Why arent there any new posts?
Did I miss something?
Good question. Our original design has not “panned out”. We have been praying and thinking what to do next. Pray with us.
Meanwhile, I will add a few posts here in the next little while.