By Dr. Rebekah McCloud
There’s a commercial that features a teenaged boy and his parents. The parents are going out for the evening and leave the young man with the task of doing his laundry. When they return, he has indeed washed and dried his laundry. His Mom looked at the heaping pile and says to him, “you didn’t fold it.” He shrugged his shoulders and replied, “You didn’t tell me to do it.”
I’m sure some of you are saying, “he’s just lazy.” I agree. Sloth is becoming an American pastime. But, if we are honest, we’ve all had some of these “didn’t tell me to” experiences. Sometimes we were the ones that said “you didn’t tell me to” and at other times, it’s been someone else who said to us, “you didn’t tell me to.”
As good and faithful stewards, these words should not be in our vocabulary. You know church work can be hard. There’s always a lot to do. It’s easy to sit on the pew and wait for others to do the work.
I can say for myself, I know this to be true. When I first joined Grace, the pastors asked me how I wanted to be involved. I told them that I just wanted to sit on the pew. To which they said, that’s okay for now. Needless to say, my sitting days did last long. God has called us as stewards to use the time he has given us to serve and to help build his kingdom. Amen.
Let me say it again, church work can be hard. There’s always a lot to do. Sometimes, if they are not careful and intentional, even the elect can get weary of doing good. It’s easy to let our eyes wander so that we see what the others are not doing. But, we must be reminded of 2 Thessalonians 3:6. It says in part, “Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness…”
The dictionary says idle, as an adjective when speaking of a person, means avoiding work or lazy. It can also mean without purpose or effect; pointless. Synonyms include lazy, indolent, slothful, frivolous, trivial, trifling and do nothing. The Bible uses the terms idle and sloth. Nowadays, people use the term “lazy busy.” No matter which term you use, the spirit of “didn’t tell me to” can be costly to the church. Amen.
I read an article[1] that said sloth is costly. It will:
- cost you joy in God, in your daily routines.
- blind you to the needs you can fill.
- cost you your love for the local church.
- mute your worship.
One of my friends has stopped going to her mega church because she was frequently voluntold to be on almost every committee, auxiliary, program and what not at her church. One day she called the pastor and told him enough is enough and she quit.
That’s a real shame. She was a faithful servant who is now suffering from church hurt. She took her eyes of Jesus and focused on the “lazy busy” people. You know the ones with a mouth full of “they didn’t tell me to.” The tragedy of this situation is that sometimes the lazy busy conform and fall in line with the crowd. Romans 12:2, a familiar scripture, tells us, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Amen.
Did you ever hear about the patient who went for a very thorough examination by a doctor? The patient said that he wanted the doctor to be frank about what was wrong with him. The doctor asked him if he was quite sure about this. The patient replied in the affirmative.
Said the doctor, “There isn’t a thing in the world wrong with you, except that you are just lazy.” The patient answered, “Okay, doc. Now give me the medical term for it, so I can tell my wife.”[2]
Let’s not be like him. Colossians
3:23 tells us, “Whatever you do, work
heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.” Let’s not wait to be told to do it.
Lazy busy is not in us. All the time, talent, money and resources we need are
in this house. Church
work can be hard. There’s always a lot to do. Let’s be about God’s business and put our hands to the plow. Amen.
[1] Reinke, T. (2015). Lazy Busy: Unmasking the Deadly Sin of Sloth at https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/lazy-busy.
[2] Jerry Newcombe Overcoming the sin of sloth. The Christian Post 2014 at https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.christianpost.com/amp/overcoming-the-sin-of-sloth.html.