Have you ever seen a sloth in the zoo or on tv? Baby sloths are so cute. Sloths live in Central and South America and spend their lives “hanging around” in trees. About once a week they climb down from the tree and go to the bathroom, then they slowly climb back up again. Sloths name means literally “lazy”. This is because they are some of the slowest creatures on earth. The avg. land speed of a sloth is 9 feet per minute. That is roughly .1 mph. I mean, I am a slow old man, but even I could win a foot race with a sloth.

The word, sloth or slothful means lazy or indolent. The slothful person fails to engage life in a meaningful way. They are essentially withholding energy or effort to do the things that need to be done. Proverbs 19:15 points out this truth about the danger of sloth: “Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.” Slothfulness is essentially falling asleep to life. The consequences of sloth or laziness can be life-limiting. So, Solomon warns the reader that the wise person who wants to live a flourishing life as God has designed will pay careful attention to the times when laziness gains control of their lives.

Now, let us pause for a moment. Human beings were not created to work non-stop. Workaholism is not health to our bodies, our minds, or our relationships with others and with God. We all know people who seem like they are never able to stop working, relax, enjoy time with family and friends. We know people who are too “busy” to God to Church, pray, read their Bibles, visit a friend who needs support or just appreciate all the gifts of life.

God created us to be human beings, not human doings. God built into creation a certain rhythm and flow to life. Human beings need sleep. It is a biological imperative. You “have” to sleep in order to live. In the same way, God built into creation the need to not only sleep, but to cease productive activities, to rest from work. God said it is necessary to take one day of the week to “cease” working. He called this Shabbat/Sabbath which means literally, to cease. Solomon is not here prescribing workaholism. In fact elsewhere in the Bible it says: “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” (Psalm 127:2).

But just as it is bad to work all the time and never get rest, it is equally bad to be perpetually slothful and not do the work you need to do. Back to Proverbs 19 Solomon says: “The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth.” Here Solomon introduces another term “sluggard”. A slug is a tiny shellless gastropod. It is a snail without a shell. They hang around your garden all day munching on your vegetables. Like the sloth, they also do not move very much. A sluggard is essentially a person who is habitually lazy. In Solomon’s example this person is so lazy that they can’t even do the simple task or moving their food from their dish to their mouth so they can eat… and live.

In short, Solomon wants us to understand that the wise person who will flourish in life as God designed will not be perpetually lazy. You have things that you need to do to live a good and flourishing life. If you want to reap a harvest in the Fall you must first do the work of planting the seeds in the Spring. If you are too lazy to plant, to weed, to harvest, then you won’t have a flourishing garden, and you personally won’t flourish.

Important note: you can be busy and active doing stuff and still be slothful about what is truly important. If you have ever sat down with your laptop to work, and three hours later realized that you have been on your computer for three hours and haven’t gotten any work done, but you’re all caught up on your social media and binge watched several episodes of your favorite show on Netflix, you know that you can be doing activities when you planned to do work. The world is full of distractions. And human beings are easily bored.

Part of sloth is not being able to focus on what you really need to be doing in the moment. Many times in my life I have found myself procrastinating on a task that I needed to do, but instead reorganized my sock drawer, rearranged my shirts by color and researched and planned my next vacation. It is easy to get distracted away from important but unpleasant or difficult tasks by the low hanging fruit of something easy. Do not get me wrong, we all do this once in a while and It is certainly okay at times to say, “I Do not have the mental energy at this moment to tackle that task.” It is when it becomes habitual, when we become habitually slothful about important things that the real danger becomes apparent.

Now, finally, I must say that sometimes people have underlying health issues that reduce their energy. For some people, sloth can be a response to trauma, a sign of clinical depression or other mental health concerns. If you detect lethargy in your life, it might not be a character flaw, it might be a sign of a health concern, so get health. Do not ignore sloth. It could be a sign of a spiritual problem. The ancient Church used the term “acedia” as a kind of substitute for sloth. Acedia means literally, without care. Acedia is a kind of apathy, you just do not care any more- which can be a kind of spiritual depression and it can impact our relationship with God. Do not ignore sloth: it could be a sign of a physical problem. See a doctor and get it checked out. Do not ignore sloth: it could be a sign of an undiagnosed mental health issue, get it checked out. Do not ignore sloth: it could be a bad habit that you have fallen into, and if it becomes a perpetual habit it will change your character and keep you from flourishing. If this is a problem for you, talk to God about it in prayer, talk to your pastor, your parent, a trusted friend, a counselor, but do not ignore it.