In Sunday school this morning, we talked about laziness. It is actually one of the seven deadly sins, often referred to as "sloth" within that reference lens. We discussed several charges of this behavior within the lesson and talking points. We talked about us as a society and pondered on if we are actually a working society as a root or a lazy one. All political entitlement points aside, I received a personal charge that many of you may agree with me on.
Let's look at our Christianity productivity levels in 2015. No, this is not some end of the year mantra or pledging for 2016 mumbo, this is solely a frame of reference as we are nearing 2015's end. In reflection, I see my Christian faith on a 12 month point scale as I ask you to do. Within the last 12 months, how many of those months would you say that you are a "model" Christian? In other words, how many of the months would you say you were a disciple, and how many were you, well...lazy? I would say in 2015 I was more lazy than not, you? On that scaling I may be a 8:4 scale, where the left side of the ratio is my lazy months and the right is my "model" months.
My charge to you is, what does your ratio look like?
12:1?
3:9?
8:4?
2:10?
I think this gives us a personal charge to do better in our next time frame of reference.
It is interesting when many of us Christians turn to the news and want to jump on the "lazy America" bandwagon when we tend to be lazy in our own faith. Paul was charged with bringing a new ideology along to churches that were lazy. God gave him authority to be one of the leaders of the working movement and get Christians on the right track to societal contributions, and all other types as well including providing for their families and the church. God gave him that charge and authority as a disciple and worker to take on that title of leader. God has given us that charge as well. We have the Holy Spirit in us as Christians giving us that authority, yet we are the first to mock those that are lazy on the news and refuse to better their own lifestyles, when we are the owners of one ugly ratio. As a Christian faith of believers we have to fix our own laziness before moving onto others and condemning them for it.
"But Evan, I work and provide for my family and I surely am not lazy."
How does your ratio look in regards to your faith though?
Honestly, we as Christians have got to be better within our faith. It may be hard to be that 12 month disciple and not be lazy one bit throughout the whole time frame, but I think it is possible to be better because we all have room for improvement.
If Jesus called us into His office for a performance appraisal, I think laziness would be one of the top talking points. He would most likely charge us with hypocrisy because we are the ones ashamed of our fellow humans that beg for $15 an hour at McDonald's, while seriously showing our lazy side in regards to our own faith. If we figure out this laziness thing within our faith, then we have the right to model it to other people who are not believers. We cannot be that person on the news deciding to not work and call ourselves a Christian; there are verses all over Proverbs regarding that mindset, you "sluggar".
I want someone to know me for my character, willingness to work, and can say I am a Christian in my work environment without having to constantly remind them how much I go to church or sing or have lead worship before. I want my productivity as a Christian to outweigh my laziness as a believer so that others may see what a true model behavior looks like.
I want a better ratio.
No comments:
Post a Comment