Thoughts on Laziness
Posted: Wednesday, March 09, 2011
by Sulagna Dasgupta
Love in India
Laziness. Sloth. Procastination. No matter which name you call it, laziness is sin. Yes, according to Christian mythology laziness, or “Sloth”, is one of the seven deadly sins, which destroy the purity of one’s heart and moves one far away from God. Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas said Sloth is "sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good... [it] is evil in its effect, if it so oppresses man as to draw him away entirely from good deeds."
We have all been sent to this world for carrying out God’s sacred deeds. This life is a precious gift from God, an opportunity for realizing the bottomless ocean of potential He has given each of us. Are we being appreciative of His kindness, His magnificence and His generosity when we waste any part of this priceless gift? If we have wasted any part of our life idling away, we’ve killed it. We’ve killed a part of a gift from God. We’ve killed ourselves, since killing a part of one’s life is killing a part of oneself.
Laziness is also stealing. Let’s say you went to a shop and bought five t-shirts for $100. But later you found out that the shopkeeper has given you only four t-shirts, worth $80. I’m sure anyone would agree that this is stealing. Now can you tell me what is the difference between accepting $100 for goods worth $80, and accepting a salary of $100,000 for delivering services worth $80,000? That’s exactly what you’re doing when you’re goofing off at work! If you take a more spiritual view of life and consider that we’ve all been sent to this world for carrying out God’s holy work, then laziness also means not fulfilling the duties that have been assigned to us by God. That way it also signifies stealing from God.
You’re probably thinking, “Are you really crazy enough to tell me that I should work 24×7?? Get some help!”
Let’s get that clear-that’s not what I mean.
So what is sloth? Are you being lazy whenever you’re not working? Is work (whatever you call work) the only thing that can be counted as legitimate use of your time? No. This life is meant for enjoying and exploring all its beauty to the fullest. That is what God has sent us to this world for-to appreciate this beautiful reality called life, to appreciate His magnificent creations in the form of the physical beauty of our world, other human beings in it, the simple little exquisite experiences in our personal and professional lives… in one word-everything. He wants us to both create and enjoy His creations. When we’re doing what we call ‘work’, we’re creating something. We’re somehow or the other (no matter what exactly your job is) helping make this world a better place. That’s how we’re carrying out God’s wish-by helping Him in His sacred work of building this world. When we’re taking time off-reading a book, listening to music, spending time with our families, traveling-we’re stepping back and enjoying His beautiful work called life. Both of these aspects of life are sacred and are equally important.
So what is laziness? A rule of thumb: Whenever you’re in doubt regarding whether you’re being lazy or not, ask yourself, “Is there a better way of spending my time?” There, you have it. So now you know that if you’re dozing off on your keyboard sometime in the afternoon in spite of getting proper sleep every night (proper usually varies from 6 to 8 hours depending on the person) you’re being lazy-there is a better way of spending those few minutes of yours. JIf you’re watching a horror movie late at night because you’re too hooked to it, in spite of your eyelids drooping after a day’s work-you’re being lazy, since in this case the obviously better way of using your time would be to give your body and mind the rest they need. Yes, engaging in unproductive activities is laziness in this case, while sleeping is not!
Now that we’ve been able to pinpoint what exactly is laziness, how can we tackle it? Surely we know that the plain old brute force approach of just making yourself do things you don’t really feel like doing doesn’t work. In order to overcome sloth when it gets to you, you have to really want to do whatever you think is a better use of your time more than the wasteful activity you’re engaged in now.
“But that’s paradoxical,” you might think. “It’s human nature to tend to slack off. While I know I should do X now, how can I like X more than lazing around? If that were the case I wouldn’t be lazing around in the first place!”
You’re right, but only to some extent. We might temporarily forget whatever it is that could be a better use of our time, and slip into a period of lull. But the moment we’re conscious of the fact that we’re being lazy we can remind ourselves of the significance of the activity that we could be engaging in. And that should become our wake-up call. That should propel us to genuinely want to do it rather than waste our time in something decidedly inferior. And this can happen if we understand inside our hearts that we’re doing God’s work, irrespective of the exact function in question. If you’re an engineer you’re creating machines/buildings/computer programs which are directly contributing to the development of the economy and thus helping the country. If you’re a lawyer you’re fighting for what you believe is justice, and are thus carrying out God’s intention. If you’re a student your job is to add maximum value to yourself so that in the future you’re better equipped to contribute to your economy and your country. If you’re a homemaker you’re engaged in the crucial task of keeping the home-which is the basic unit of the nation-functional, of taking care of every member of the family so that they can realize their potential.
When you’re able to look beyond your own selfish motives and understand the real significance of what you’re doing, you have to rush to perform your function to the best of your abilities.
I love life. And so do you. How can we let it pass by us without making the most of every tiny bit of it?
This Article has been viewed 473 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.