Sluggards Read On - Part 1

I can’t remember who it was, but someone once advised me to read a chapter from the Book of Proverbs every day. Every fool should. And now I’ve got my girls doing it. If nothing else (and there is) it makes for some great dinner-table banter. Of all Proverbs’ characters, we love The Sluggard the best. His name is almost onomatopoeic. You can virtually see the trail of slime…

The Sluggard is more than lazy and his laziness is more than just a character flaw. When you read his antics, should you laugh or weep or do both? And then the penny drops… this could be me!

But it’s unlikely to be you. At least in regard to your work, or your sport. No shades of the sluggard there. But if you don’t display sluggardly tendencies at your desk, might you in your walk with God? Or your relationship with your spouse, or children? Can you be the exact opposite of The Sluggard in your career, where you apply yourself diligently, but be sluggardly elsewhere? Sure you can.

So, at the risk of making the same error as well-women clinics, and appealing to the well-worried (after all, no self-respecting Sluggard would have read this far, let alone read any further) I want to take a few posts to consider ten characteristics of The Sluggard, and how not to be one:

1. The Sluggard scores 0 for wisdom:

‘Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise’ [Proverbs 6:6]. Solomon sends The Sluggard to the ant, of all places, to learn wisdom. Let’s face it, things are pretty bad if something with a brain the size of a passing gnat is wiser than you! But then one of The Sluggard’s fundamental problems is that he just can’t see how devoid of wisdom he is: ‘the sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly’ [Proverbs 26:16]. He thinks he’s arrived. He thinks no-one can teach him anything. Sadly, the ant knows better.

So, key no. 1 in your plan to avoid being a sluggard: recognize you need wisdom, that you are poor in spirit (Matt 5:3). Make a habit of calling out to God for it (James 1:5). And given that Christ is our ultimate wisdom (1 Cor 1:24, 30), pursue Him with all your heart.

2. The Sluggard needs constant prodding:

Unlike the ant, who doesn’t need a boss telling him what to do, the Sluggard needs a cattle prod applied to the seat of learning to get him moving [Proverbs 6:6-8]. He has made inertia an art-form. So not only does he score 0 for wisdom, he scores 0 for push.

Key no. 2 in your anti-sluggard defense plan: act on Paul’s words, and fan into flame the gift of God (2 Tim 1:7). Don’t just wait for someone else to blow on your flame for it to flicker a bit. Don’t wait to be spoon-fed. Be a self-feeder. If Paul tells Timothy, ‘you can fan the gift God has given you into a flame’, you obviously can fan it into a flame, so get fanning! Paul can say, ‘Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit’ (Rom 12:11) and ‘whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men’ (Col 3:23).

3: The Sluggard doesn’t prepare:

The ant does, but not our friend The Sluggard [Proverbs 6:8]. He won’t do the necessary planning and preparation needed to reap the harvest; he thinks he can just reap: ‘The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing’ [Proverbs 20:4]. Now, can’t you just imagine him, standing beside his empty fields, feeling aggrieved that the crops he didn’t plant haven’t grown?

So key no. 3 in handing off those sluggardly tendencies: seek counsel, plan, prepare, and commit those plans to the Lord: ‘and your plans will succeed’ [Proverbs 16:3]. That is as true of your relationship with God – what to read, what to study, how to pray, being accountable, or your relationships with others – as it is for work.

Now, whilst not wanting to evoke images of a couch-potato with the remote in his hand (a sluggard if ever there was one), tune in next week for some more.

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