Idleness

Idleness is a killer. It will numb you, distract you, and leave you feeling awful. It's everywhere and it's consuming me.

I've been on leave from school for about a month now and I cannot point to one thing that I have done. I've been telling myself that I would mow the lawn for the past four days. It hasn't been cut yet. What's happening? I have all the free time in the world. I have no real responsibilities. The sky's the limit. I could be doing anything right now and yet I can't even keep my yard clean. Instead, I choose to sit around doing God knows what. I'm becoming stagnant.

I need work.

"And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" (Gen. 1:28)

That speaks to a need in my heart. A need to rule over and subdue something. My yard for starters would be great. I need to sweat and work at something before my summer days are gone. And with them some chances of doing what I was made to do. Telling myself that I will start tomorrow is a crippling lie. I think I'm done with it.

I'm going to go mow my lawn right now. And it's 90 degrees outside.

Comments

[Anonymous]

I agree, being stagnant is extremmely disheartening. Our laziness must be overcome.

[David Dalrymple]

Great honest quote with a great scripture reference to start us off.

[Drew Leatherberry]

First off, thanks to David for inviting me to share in these thoughts and try to make attempts at sharing my own.

As to idleness and work, this is an interesting topic. It is one in which I happen to feel like God has been reforming me on lately.

First, a thought on liberty and freedom; they are not the same quality according to Stephen Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People). Covey talks of liberty as the capacity to do something. In this country, we have all the liberty to do things which we like, want, and need to do. However, that does not necessarily make us free. Sometimes we are such reactive people that we are constrained to the same habits day in and day out. Thus, we are not acting freely within the very liberty that we have.

I believe this is akin to freedom in Christ. In Christ, we are completely liberated from sin and from fleshly desires, yet how many of us often find ourselves constrained to living in slavery to sin.

Second, a thought on work. Jason, how profound of you to point to Genesis for the mandate to work. We see in the Fall that man was cursed in his work to labor and toil and never would receive the fulfilling produce from his work. This is interesting to me because I've been learning lately about man and his work on this earth. As Christians, it seems to have become popular to discount things of this world as unspiritual (vocations, work, eating, movies, culture, etc...) and we seemed to have removed ourselves from viewing these as "spiritual". At least, this has been true for me. I've found it difficult to find purpose in life unless it has something to do with Jesus (in conversations with others, in work, etc...). In doing so, I've put my focus on the future eternal kingdom and forgotten that that kingdom is not only future but here and now. I've also forgotten that God put Adam in the Garden to cultivate and order life to display the distinct excellence of God. This purpose, though stained by the Fall, is still there for mankind. Therefore, when I begin to not see my life, every single crevice of it, as an opportunity to bring glory to the Father, life tends to lose meaning. Granted, idleness still is a battle to be fought but, with a changed perspective on purpose, a precious sword for that battle can be crafted.

May God grant us proactive hearts to serve Him in all that we do.