sloth & zeal

“The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.”

“The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.”

Our granddaughter has a sloth stuffed animal that is her favorite. She sleeps with it and would carry it around all day if her parents allowed her. She loves sloths so much that she even got a sloth purse for Easter this year. I can understand the attraction to a stuffed sloth, but I have to be real, the live ones at the zoo, CREEP ME OUT! Ha!

Nothing, not a thing, nada, moves as eerily slow as a sloth. The creepy way they turn their head, the slowness of their reaching for a tree branch, and those claws/nails slowly reaching out or up…eek! However, in spite of how creepy they seem to me, they actually do have some redeeming qualities.

Did you know?

1. Without sloths there wouldn’t be any avocados? It’s true, giant ground sloths were one of the few herbivores large enough to swallow avocados whole, and then dispersing the seeds far and wide. Think about that next time you eat one.

2. Sloths are actually three times stronger than we are! They are the undisputed pull-up world champions. From birth, sloths are able to lift their entire body weight upwards with just one arm. They have enough strength to withstand the force of a jaguar trying to rip them from the tree, due to their highly specialized muscle arrangement!!

3. Fungi living in their fur has been used to cure cancer! Sloths have a strange method of camouflage. They can appear green due to cracks in their hair that allow many different species of algae and fungi to grow. Some species of fungi living in sloth fur have been found to be active against certain strains of bacteria, cancer and parasites!

A sloth is slow in its behavior for a few reasons, they are half blind and half deaf, which makes moving around challenging at best. It takes them 30 days to digest one leaf. They have the slowest metabolic rate of any mammal. They also only relieve themselves once a week and can lose up to a third of their body weight in one sitting! All of this takes a lot of energy and therefore requires them to store energy.

I share all of this to say…

Sloths can get a bad rap, especially since ‘sloth’ is one of the “seven deadly sins,” but they are one of God’s creatures, created specifically as they are, with a purpose in our ecosystem. So that makes them pretty cool animals. However, it’s also important to know that we too were created with a purpose, and without reason to be sloth like in our behavior.

When we refer to someone as being a sloth, or sloth like, it’s definitely not a compliment, as we are essentially saying they are lazy, slow, or idle. We are generally referring to their physical actions or better yet, their lack of any action at all.

King Solomon had a lot to say about zealous/diligent and lazy people. In fact he said…

“As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so are sluggards [aka sloths] to those who send them.” (Proverbs 10:26)

The book of Proverbs, authored by King Solomon, speaks frankly and sternly about slothfulness. In this scripture he uses two similes describing what it’s like to have a lazy person around who impacts you at work, at home, at church, in school, wherever.

He uses vinegar which we know causes our teeth to be sensitive and weakens the enamel, making them vulnerable to decay, and smoke in our eyes is irritating and causes them to water, as metaphors to describe the annoying behaviors of a slothful person and how their behaviors irritate those around them.

No one wants to deal with those annoyances, and no one wants to hire someone who is lazy! No one!

A sloth lives life in hesitation. Hesitant to work, hesitant to exert any energy on much at all, and hesitant to make any kind of decisions, no matter who might suffer from their sloth like behavior. Needless to say, they are incredibly irritating people to be around, and their behavior is like a slap in the face to God.

God designed people to work.

"The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”
(Genesis 2:15 )

Work is important.

Work is how we provide for ourselves, care for our families, help our neighbors and communities, and share our blessings with others. It’s how we use our gifts and talents from God.

The responsibility that comes with working and being able to care for ourselves and others plays an important part in the development of our dignity.

Scripture tells us that God worked.

“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” (Genesis 2:2)

Are we above God? Are we too good to work, even if our creator and Savior worked?

The past two Sundays in church, I have experienced something completely unexpected, but so God like to create the opportunities for me to learn new lessons, after all, there are NO coincidences with God you know. Considering what I have been writing about, He provided me with opportunities to experience things that would broaden my perspective on the meaning of deadly sins, particularly about the deadly sin of sloth like behavior, and how it can potentially lead to death. Death of our zeal and fire for the faith.

Greg and I went to church, two Sundays ago, and there is a gentleman who regularly attends, who always just randomly yells out during the service. I sort of knew his story, but not his full story. I knew that he had some challenges, but I can’t deny, I judged his behavior, and was sometimes annoyed by his random belting out of comments. But just like God, after service that day, God humbled me in the only way God can, that man walked past us to leave, but then literally almost fell over himself turning around to come back to meet us and pray over us.

This man wanted so desperately to share the love of God with us and to share his testimony, which is actually quite amazing.

He was on fire for Jesus and wanted us to know why! He was so excited to share the love of Jesus with us, and he wanted so badly to give us something, a gift of some sort. He ended up taking these two random pins off his shirt collar and gave one to each of us, along with a printout of his story.

You see he not only had some physical challenges, but he also had a difficult time speaking due to not one, but two brain injuries, but in his zeal to share his love for Jesus, he printed out copies of his story and he hands them out to anyone who will receive the blessing he is offering. He also gave us a small note card about, The Parable of the Mustard Seed. This beautiful man, and his zeal for Jesus, unknown to any of us then, was setting the stage for what was to come this past week at church that God would again use to open my eyes to the sin of slothfulness, and how it doesn’t just refer to being lazy physically.

Fast forward to the following Sunday. This particular week we went to the later service which we almost never do. Unbeknownst to me, there is a sign language interpreter for the second service. We ended up sitting quite close, where I had the perfect view/opportunity to absorb this incredibly sweet time of worship with our deaf brothers and sisters.

Friends, it was moving.

God spoke to my heart as I soaked in their worship. I got to witness their passion, pouring out of them as they signed their worship and praises to God, in spite of their inability to hear the music.

It was so spiritually moving. In fact, it brought tears to my eyes.

I felt like I was witnessing a Holy moment in time.

God spoke to my heart in a BIG way as I observed the worship of those who could not hear a sound, and yet, were praising God with more energy and zeal than I myself have in years!

I don’t know the story of this one man in particular, but the way in which he was praising God through his signing, was indicative of a man who had been in the valleys and knew the lifter of his head, the giver and sustainer of life. Yes, he was that on fire for the Lord.

Watching them, and the beautiful interpreter was so powerful and one of the most moving moments in worship I have had in a very long time.

As if this weren’t enough, I feel like God had to drive his point home so there could be no misunderstanding of how my worship was teetering on sloth like behavior.

About midway through the service, right before the sermon, we were asked to get into small groups around where we were seated, and just pray with people.

Just randomly pray, with total strangers, in church.

Are you kidding me?

Now mind you, I pray in public, and at family events, etc., but you want me to pray, in church, on Sunday morning, in the sanctuary, with strangers?

I thought to myself, nope, I want out of here if this is the direction we are heading. Not doing this every week. Nope. This is weird, and we have these people sitting by us that look like they are freaked out. I’ve never seen them here before (although hello? not surprising, we have thousands in our church), but my projection was that our “two assumed visitors” who “didn’t look like” they were regular church goers, were going to leave and never come back. After all, this is what turns newbies off when they visit church.

But I pulled up my big girl panties and participated.

Greg and I met those around us, and gathered who wanted to gather to pray, and the five of us held hands. Next thing I know, the lady I “assumed” was an unchurched non-regular attender offered to lead our group’s prayer, and I was so humbled. God put me in my place through the amazing gift of prayer this woman poured over us. This was NOT her first prayer rodeo! She was clearly a prayer warrior.

photo by Matthew de Livera @matthewdelivera

While she wasn’t as zealous as the previous two examples, this timid, soft-spoken woman had a zeal for the Lord, you could hear it in her voice, and in her words.

This woman spent time in prayer. She talked to the Lord, and it spoke to my heart. Her way was much quieter, yet still powerful and passionate.

Isn’t that just like God to use these examples, as different as all three were, to reveal my judgmental heart, and how slothfulness can also infect our heart and our souls and this is reflected in how we are or are not zealous for the Lord.

What I believe God was teaching me these last two Sundays, was that slothfulness while it does refer to physical laziness and the unwillingness to work or be productive for monetary needs, or pulling your weight in particular scenarios of life, the same behavior can extend into our spiritual lives. It doesn’t just mean lazy in the sense of physical work. It goes beyond the physical.

Sloth is failure to do the things that one should do. This can apply to various aspects of our lives. Slothfulness is really a symptom of the vice of apathy or indifference, particularly apathy or boredom with God.

A Sloth is…

1. Someone who desires much but isn’t willing to put forth the effort to achieve.

2. Someone who never completes what they start.

3. Someone who is full of excuses.

4. Someone who values little, and wastes time because they see no value in it, theirs or anyone else’s.

5. Someone who wastes their God-given health and talents.

6. Someone who lacks passion for anything and everything, especially their faith.

Zeal is the antidote to slothfulness! To be zealous is to have passionate energy for a belief or purpose. Websters’ says being zealous is being, “filled with or showing a strong and energetic desire to get something done or see something succeed.”

The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 12:11 , “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.”

This scripture is confusing to me, but John Piper, author, and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary explains it this way, Piper says, “this verse emphasizes the intensity and focus we are to have in our work for the Lord, and in our faith.”(to read more)

A zealous person is…

1. Someone with a strong desire to accomplish. Usually an early riser. A hard worker.

2. Someone who wants to succeed and help others succeed.

3. Someone with a healthy/balanced passion in pursuit of a cause or an objective.

4. Someone with a tireless, diligent devotion for a person, a cause, or ideal.

5. Someone who values time, theirs and others.

It’s important to note here, that a person can be too zealous and turn people off, and they can do as much damage as a sloth who sucks the life out of people and turns them off.

“Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.” (Proverbs 6:6-8)

Blog references and resources:

Top 10 incredible facts about the sloth

Pastor Tanto-Oak Creek Church

Sloth- Today's Christian Woman

7 deadly sins & their counterparts (#5)