Sloth

I was going to post yesterday, but I just didn't feel like it.

I have heard it said (many times) that Americans work the longest and hardest hours. Even if true, this must refer only to developed (and perhaps western) nations. The Deadly Sin of Sloth is usually equated with laziness and in my observation (mostly of myself!) laziness is a real problem in America. That being said, I've blogged about laziness before. I want to take the Sin of Sloth in a different direction.

Perhaps even more of a problem in America (and especially in my generation) is Apathy. I think the Sin of Sloth is less about laziness and more about missing passion. The opposite of Sloth is not hard-work, but joy and vigor. Many of my peers, including myself, hate to make decisions. It's not so much that we don't have preferences (we do), but we question what difference our choices really make. We begin to despair that our choices actually have significance.

Sloth, then, is the sin of despairing that life and the choices therein ultimately matter. It is deeper than laziness. Some lazy people are very passionate about ideas, but they are unwilling to be the one to act. But the slothful appear (and become) lazy because they've lost hope. Sloth leads us to say 'whatever' and 'I don't care' over and over again. Many major movies in the past couple of decades have had slothful lead characters whose lives have lost all significance. And the scary thing is, many of these movies suggest sloth as the appropriate response to reality.

But we need not despair. We need not be apathetic. There is hope and a reason for zeal. But the movies are right that hope and zeal cannot be found outside of Christ (where the main characters are looking). Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.