Laziness

10/27/17            Jeff                 67

He invited me in to talk, but first had to put away his gun.  Jeff, a retired cop, explained that there had been some burglaries in the neighborhood, and he suspected the thief would knock on doors first to see if people were home.  While I was knocking, he had waited just inside his door, gun in hand, to see if I would break in!

Despite the gun, I’ve had some great experiences getting to know my neighbors and sharing the Gospel by knocking on doors and asking about their beliefs.  The biggest difficulty, especially as the days get shorter, has been finding the right window of time when people are home from work but it’s not so late that I am truly bothering them.  So far, about 25% have been willing to talk a short time, 25% not willing, and 50% have been willing to have an extended conversation.  

At first Jeff seemed willing to have a longer conversation as we settled into his living room.  I asked about his beliefs, and he had explained that his wife is the religious one of the family, that she attends mass faithfully every morning, while he has put in many years of service as a cop in some pretty rough neighborhoods.  Now he basically wants to just keep doing good and trust that this will count for something in the hereafter.  We chatted some about the neighborhood and ways in which he and his wife were helping others out.  He soon tired of that and said “Let’s just cut to the chase.  What’s your angle?  What is it you really want out of this conversation?”

He assumed I wanted him to join my church or sign up for something - probably because I had a clipboard in order to keep track of which houses I have visited and who had been home - but I assured him that I simply want to help people better understand the Gospel, that only God can change people’s hearts.  He had some good questions but was never really patient or interested enough to hear an extended answer.  Finally, he explained “You know, when it comes to religion, I’m basically lazy.  I just leave it to my wife and the church to figure out, and I try to do my part to be a better person.  And I really have become a nicer person as I get older, so I think God is pretty happy with me.”

When Jeff self-identified as being “lazy”, I felt like he really hit the nail on the head, though I wasn’t going to sit as a guest in his living room and expand on that thought.  But I believe that for a large percentage of people, “laziness” would be at the core of their estrangement from God. 

It might seem like laziness is simply just a bad habit or mild character flaw.  But maybe it’s much more than that.  Maybe it’s a sort of passive rebellion against God, a less-obvious way of putting selfish pleasure first before God’s priorities.  Maybe laziness is more often than not a sin of the highest order against God’s authority in our lives. 

 

In his parable of the bags of gold, Jesus explained that the servant who failed to invest his was a “‘..wicked, lazy servant”   In describing the Cretans, Paul called them “…liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.”   And in Hebrews, laziness is the opposing attribute of those who fully inherit God’s promises.

As a cop, I’m pretty sure Jeff didn’t view ignorance of the law as a good excuse to break the law.  This ignorance begins with the laziness that comes in failing to have a proper respect for the law.  So too with God’s law, and the purpose it has for us - to show us our sin and our need for the Savior.  Jeff is missing out on the Savior because his sinful laziness won’t allow him to see his need for salvation.

So brothers and sisters, let us not be fooled into thinking our own laziness is any less than the sin it is.  “We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”  (Hebrews 6)