A slacker says, “There’s a lion on the road! A lion is in the streets!” Proverbs 26:13, TLV
Yikes! A Lion? This proverb always gives me a chuckle. Lions in the street? Really? Still, back in King Solomon’s day, a random lion could be running the streets of Jerusalem or Nazareth or Hebron—pretty much anywhere in Israel. It could have happened.
There are a lot of “it could happens” in this world, especially these days.
Fear of “Lions”
Honestly, there are dangers out there. Being prudent about timing and location isn’t wasted. However, knowing there are dangers—possible dangers—can foster fear. Fear that can immobilize us.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, being wise and careful was necessary. Most likely we lost loved ones to that disease. Heartbreaking. Frightening.
Because of technology, we were able to manage a
significant amount of our daily activities. Ordering online—especially groceries—increased exponentially. What was once a luxury became essential.
Children’s classes were conducted online.
Congregations scrambled to put equipment in place to livestream services.
Contact with others outside of our homes was rare. And if there was, it was impersonal. No hugging. Masks. At one point, hazmat suits and gloves.
But What About Today?
Ironically, a whole industry of support and resources to maintain some level of normalcy during a crisis has now become commonplace. We’ve come to rely on many of these conveniences, because, well, because they’re convenient.
What has happened is we haven’t gone back to the way things were. Because of fear? Or, could it also be laziness. “Lions” of this world are an easy excuse to not do what we need to do, or should do.
The Effort of Laziness
It occurred to me that laziness takes a lot of effort. Really. It takes an incredible amount of creativity to dream up excuses about why to NOT do something.
No matter how plausible or absurd the excuses, today’s proverb deals with a legitimate theme, fear. The “it could happen” excuse.
Yes, a lion could escape from the zoo and happen to be prowling around the neighborhood looking for some unsuspecting soul mowing their lawn.
Maybe there could be a blood-thirsty, disease-infested mosquito buzzing around the yard craving a bite of someone taking out the trash.
Or, yes, we could fail in our effort to accomplish a task and everyone would hate us for eternity.
What a waste of creativity.
Then there’s all the effort necessary to deal with the repercussions of not doing the task. Dealing with disappointing others, dealing with people who no longer trust us to follow-through. Or, dealing with the nagging of others and with our own excuses to ourselves.
Finally, there is the ultimate guilt. Guilt that accumulates because we keep making excuses to not do something.
Exhausting
All that avoiding and laziness — it’s exhausting!
Wouldn’t it be funny if it took less effort doing the task than it takes to make the excuses, apologies, undo the damage to our reputations?
Something to think about.
Do you struggle with procrastination or making excuses to not accomplish a task? How do you overcome it?
Thanks so much for stopping by.
