Laziness: The Subtle Enemy

Recently I have been reading a fantastic commentary on the book of Hebrews as part of my devotions. (Insert nerd joke here). In all seriousness, Hebrews: An Anchor for the Soul by R. Kent Hughes has been incredibly challenging and thought-provoking. Please allow me to digress for a moment and further my status as a nerd by encouraging you all to try reading something new (like a commentary) to shake up your reading "ruts". The new things you discover may surprise you!

Back to my main point...the other day I read the portion about Hebrews 6:11-12 which states, "We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised."

The challenge here is to "show diligence" in our relationship with Christ. Hughes states "Spiritual sluggishness is a danger that looms over all of us if we do not work against it..."

He then quoted from the book The Seven Deadly Sins Today, by Henry Fairlie and his chapter on sloth:

"Children are too idle to obey. Parents are too sluggish to command. Pupils are too lazy to work. Teachers are too indolent to teach. Priests are too slack to believe. Prophets are too morbid to inspire. Men are too indifferent to be men. Women are too heedless to be women. Doctors are too careless to care well. Shoemakers are too slipshod to make good shoes. Writers are too inert to write well. Street cleaners are too bored to clean streets. Shop clerks are too uninterested to be courteous. Painters are too feckless to make pictures. Poets are too lazy to be exact. Philosophers are too fainthearted to make philosophies. Believers are too dejected to bear witness..."

The portion that most challenged my thinking was this: "Today's culture has come very near to making a religion of sloth. Carried to the ultimate, it separates us from God because it erases caring. Humanly speaking, apart from the mysteries of God's sovereign workings, more souls perish from sloth than from outright disbelief."

How sobering. How often am I tempted to give in to sloth? Do I allow myself to be satisfied with doing what is "sufficient" instead of striving for what is excellent? Do I pass up opportunities to share Christ or demonstrate Christ to others out of passivity?

My prayer is that I would live a life of diligence in each and every area. After all, life is too short to waste, souls are too precious to go unheeded, and eternity is too imminent to be ignored.