Laziness is a common sin and very possible at home.
Someone needs to upload Abigail Shirier’s book Bad Therapy into ChatGPT and train it on some common sense.
I have been using ChatGPT to help me generate ideas for podcast titles and video descriptions. I’ve also experimented with whether or not it’s any good at outlining topical series for podcasts. At first, I was amused by how often its title options included the reassurance that “You’re not lazy.”
You’re not lazy, just overwhelmed! Why can’t you keep your house clean? You’re not lazy; you’re just expecting too much. Tired? You’re not lazy, just a perfectionist! Whatever is going on in your life, ChatGPT wants you to know it’s not because you’re lazy. It couldn’t be that. Anything but laziness.
Then earlier this week I went on a couple YouTube excursions into business videos and also research into another potential project in my life. And I started seeing it all over - “You are not lazy” was worked into at least one video title from almost every creator I saw. Multiple videos on my sidebar, also, included the thought, regardless of the video’s topic or premise.
Whatever you are, you are not lazy. It is actually impossible to be lazy. Perish the thought!
Of course, all this insistence upon a lack of laziness made contrarian me wonder if we’re all actually lazy and ChatGPT wants to keep us that way.
Guess what? If you’re lazy, you can do something about that. It’s probably simpler to fix laziness than perfectionism or overwhelm or any other mental and emotional struggle. On top of that, fixing laziness can even move you out of your other struggles, because feelings follow action. Your emotional struggles might cause laziness, but solving the laziness can be a first step out of the emotional struggles.
What is laziness?
My favorite American Heritage Dictionary has three relevant definitions for ‘lazy.’
First, laziness is “not willing to work or be energetic.” When you are lazy, it is not simply that you don’t have energy, but that you are not even willing to have energy. What energy you have, you are not willing to use.
Mothers know the “not willing to work” attitude because we see it in our children. Sometimes our children will just tell us straight up that they don’t want to make their bed, brush their teeth, or do their chores. It’s our job to likewise be straight up and say, “Too bad.” But who will say the same to us?
Other times our children will simply not do the work they are unwilling to do and see if it actually matters, if it really makes a difference, if anyone will notice. Let’s be honest. We’ve all done the same as adults as well. And who noticed? Were we willing to admit it made a difference or were we eager to buy our own excuses?
You know who noticed? God. Because He loves you, He keeps needling you about this bad attitude and your laziness. Ask me how I know. He will not let you go. It’s not false guilt; it’s conviction. God wants better for you, as His child, than to get away with bare minimums and lazy excuses — just like you do for your children.
The second definition is “slow-moving; sluggish: a lazy river.” Ha! Don’t we also know this from observing our children? Don’t our children provide us with that exaggerated mirror that we need to recognize and then repent of our own sin?
A lazy river in a pool on a hot day is fun. A sluggish day where you move through molasses is a drag. We are lazy in our obedience when our obedience is reluctant and slow rather than joyful and zealous. That’s right, even doing the right thing—obedience—can be done in a wrong way and become disobedience.
Again, such revelations are not given to throw us into condemnation, but to point us to repentance, forgiveness, and cleansing so we can be free from the doldrums of laziness.
How we obey is as much taught in Scripture as the command to obey is given. Romans 12:11 commands, "Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.” Slothful, sluggish, slow, lazy—such adjectives should not describe how we go about the Lord’s work (which is all our daily work). After all, we are to “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,” according to Colossians 3:23.
The third and final definition is “conducive to inactivity or indolence: a lazy summer day.” Rest in its place is good, and we must be constantly reminded of that in our always-on, workaholic world. However, we must also hold on to the truth that work is good, and we are given 6 days a week to **labor.** Not only should we ourselves not be inactive and indolent in our regular workday life, but we should not be creating homes that are conducive to inactivity or indolence as well.
A bustling home life is appropriate for a faithful family. Homes are not for hygge. Homes are for labor, for the formation of fully competent people. Home isn’t primarily where we rest. It’s where we work for more hours than we rest (even if you count sleeping hours—which you should, since it is the God-ordained time to rest daily).
In Christ, our spirits have rest even as we labor with our bodies. Teaching from rest is still teaching, not taking it easy; living from rest also is possible—and it means being busy abounding in the good works God has laid before you, without stress or anxiety or despair.
Is it bad to be lazy?
The Bible doesn’t warn us about sins we never commit, but those God knows we are often beset by. Many passages are dedicated to warnings against laziness, so we know for a fact that laziness is always a possibility for why we feel lousy and don’t get much done.
Identifying sins isn’t about condemnation, but about repentance—the open door out of sin when we submit to Christ. Repentance, not another pep talk, is the path to conquering laziness whenever it appears in our lives.
Laziness prompts us to be like the foolish servant given a talent. We’ve been given energy—though perhaps less than others—and because we’re comparing ourselves with others who were given more or because we don’t want to start without being certain of outcomes, we bury our energy in an effort to keep it safe. We protect ourselves rather than put ourselves out there. Unused, our energy dissipates and never expands.
Yes, it is sinful to be lazy. Scripture says so. It is also foolish and self-defeating to be lazy, as the book of Proverbs makes clear.
Are you lazy?
Especially for women, there are times were we have to relax and recoup. Women are not designed to be rigid or “consistent” in the same way that men are. Women’s work is different from men’s work and the same applications and admonitions and techniques do not always apply.
Women cycle; it is part of our design, and we should take it into account instead of pretending our bodies and minds are the same as men. Sometimes we are highly capable and other times we are not. Our fluctuating hormones make us motherly. We can adapt. We can slow down and take time with people.
Some times of the month we will spend more time sitting than others. Some seasons we will be pregnant or postpartum and our body is doing incredible work behind the scenes such that the only other thing we’re capable of doing is sleeping.
Particularly for women, we can’t simply look at checked off items to decide if we’re lazy or not. Are we counting the hour-long counseling conversation with our teen as part of our productivity? Are we counting the milk made in secret? Are we counting the time spent working out logistics and resources for the family? Are we recognizing that the afternoon rest was preparatory for a fitful night with wakeful children? Typically, we don’t count such things.
Don’t diagnose laziness by menial tasks marked off or by outcomes attained. Laziness is an attitude and disposition that leads us to sinfully neglect our duties. We have caretaking, human-scale duties, not machine-like factory duties. Judge with right judgement, with wisdom that is constantly seeking God, not outcome-based goals.
Yet laziness can certainly still beset us at home, and that quite often.
We choose laziness when we choose distraction. We ignore the dishes just because we don’t want to deal with them, not because we’re arranging our priorities with wisdom. We allow friends or acquaintances to captivate our attention when our children require it. We stay in bed after our alarm because we just don’t want to start another day. We stay on the couch because it’s warm and comfortable whereas our work seems hard and unrelenting.
Laziness is a lie whispering in our ear that we’ll have enough time later. We’ll just finish this chapter, just have a treat first, just check my email first, just participate in a trivial forum thread first. Laziness says the work doesn’t really matter anyway. It won’t make a difference.
Laziness is reluctance to exchange stillness for motion in the prime of the day. Laziness is dull, slow-motion work, uninspired and mostly unwilling even while doing what needs to be done.
Laziness blames adverse conditions (real or imagined) for a lack of motivation and movement. Instead of taking dominion, it allows circumstances to exercise dominion. Instead of taking responsibility, laziness shirks it and avoids it. After all, responsibilities only grow and increase as you meet them — keep life easy by minimally fulfilling responsibilities so you’re not given more.
Laziness is a vain grasping at the easy life. The easy life, however, is an empty promise. It has no joy, no satisfaction, no meaning, no growth. Laziness is a lie that swallows us up and eats away our life and potential.
How do you stop being lazy?
As Christians, we have the best solution to laziness right at our fingertips. We can recognize laziness not as a fault or failure or mistake, but as sin.
When we call it a sin, we are then able to repent of it. Repentance is the only way to truly be cleansed of any sin, including laziness.
Repentance begins by asking God to forgive us of the particular, specific instance of laziness. We acknowledge it as a sin against His grace and glory, then we thank Him for the blood of Jesus that gives us cleansing. We ask God for the fruit of the Spirit that He has promised us, especially self-control and faithfulness.
Then, we get up and do something we ought to do. Don’t overthink it. What needs to be done? Start there and just do something. Get up and demonstrate your willingness to work, to move, to obey. It’s actually not complicated. It only looks complicated when laziness shades our view. Obedience clears the path. Obedience brings a joy that makes us happier while doing our duties than we ever were while wiling away the day.
The two choices before us are 1) laziness or 2) doing the good work God has put before us to do. Which are you choosing right now?
Laziness will always tempt us, but we don’t have to give way when we feel the pull. God always provides a path of obedience, away and out of the temptation. It is probably the thing our laziness is asking us to ignore. If you just get up and do the thing, you will prove that your laziness was lying to you and you can show it up, answer it back. It’s actually way better to walk the path of duty than the path of ease.
Repent. Rejoice. Repeat.
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