Lazy

When I was a kid, I could be very lazy, particularly about my schoolwork.

I remember nearly missing out on my 4th grade school trip to the Big Island on Hawaii because I wasn’t doing my schoolwork.

I also got in trouble in fifth grade, and again in 7th grade for not doing my schoolwork.  After that, I finally learned my lesson.

But for some strange reason, I still have nightmares about going to university, and having a test that I’m totally not ready for.

Often times it’s a class that I skipped going to all year, and now I’m facing the final exam.  (This never happened, by the way!)

Anyway, throughout the Proverbs, not just in these passages, we find warnings against being lazy.

Time and again, Solomon mocks the lazy person saying things like,

The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not even bring it back to his mouth!  (Proverbs 19:24)

Or,

The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside!” or, “I will be murdered in the streets!”  (Proverbs 22:13)

He also makes some rather obvious observations such as,

Laziness brings on deep sleep, and the shiftless man goes hungry.  (Proverbs 19:15)

Or again (after a particularly graphic story of something he saw),

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest –  and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.  (Proverbs 24:33-34)

But perhaps the verse that strikes me the most is found in chapter 21, verses 25-26.

The sluggard’s craving will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work.  All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing.  (Proverbs 21:25-26)

God wants us to be a blessing to others.  But not only does laziness destroy us, it also prevents us from being a channel of blessing that God can use.

By our laziness, we waste the gifts that he has given us to touch others’ lives.  And God will hold us accountable for that.  We see that in Jesus’ parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30).

How about you?  Are you wasting the gifts that God has given you, from such gifts as a brain to think and hands to work, to the talents and spiritual gifts God has given you?

Let us not be lazy, but let us use our gifts to the fullest, not only blessing ourselves, but blessing those around us as well.