The slacker says, “There’s a lion outside! I’ll be killed in the public square!” (13)
We can always come up with ridiculous excuses when we don’t want to do something. The Bible tends to look down upon laziness. Laziness is not simply defined as playing or resting instead of working. There is nothing wrong with play or with rest; it is prescribed by God. The issue is putting play and rest before work and tending towards procrastination. I have wrestled with this idea for years because I am the kind of guy who wants to get the work out of the way first and fulfill my responsibilities before I can relax. Sometimes I cannot relax if I have some unfulfilled responsibility hanging over my head. I have asked myself, “Is this a tendency towards being a workaholic, or is this just up to a person’s personality type?”
When I consider concepts of work, Sabbath, and creation I don’t think so. In the beginning, we see God working first and then resting. He even prescribed that we should work 6 days and then rest after our work. I am not trying to be a legalist here, but I just think there is something to the fact that we honor God by working with our whole heart, according to His will and for His glory… then we rest from that work and rejoice in Him and His provision of rest. Other proverbs are there about diligence and fulfillment of responsibilities while there is time (consider the Ant in Proverbs 6:6-11). My point is that God made us all different, and we all have different personalities, but I think we honor Him when we serve Him and others first by doing our work well and then afterward we take time for ourselves.
We have all procrastinated and put off doing what is most important at the moment because we just didn’t want to do the thing we were required to do. We see this in the workplace, in school, at church, and everywhere else. Sometimes we try to justify it by making it sound spiritual; “Oh, I am a people person so hanging out with my friends takes priority over my work or studies!” Really? Do you honestly think you are honoring God by spending time with people or that you just would rather do that than your homework 😉? The slacker tends to cling to any justification to avoid a dreaded chore. This doesn’t honor God. Doing what you know you are supposed to do, even when your flesh doesn’t want to do it is what honors God more. There is enough time in the day to do all we need to do and all we want to do if we will order our priorities rightly and let God determine that order.
