The Seven Deadly Sins

I'm reading a book on the seven deadly sins called "Glittering Vices" by Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung.

<sub>The author begins her  chapter on Sloth by talking about how she thought of all the vices this one was easiest for her to deal with... she thought... 

...then she started to study it.

Sloth, she argues, is not physical laziness.  Physical laziness may be a symptom... but being so can constant busy-ness.  It is, she continues, a spiritual matter, not a physical one.

If I understand her arguments correctly a slothful person is one who refuses to fulfill their "God work" [my phrase].  

Think of it this way - you are, where you are because God has placed you there for a specific purpose.  For example, God may have positioned you in that miserable work environment working for that nasty boss in order to bring His light and grace to your fellow employees.  He may have placed you across the hall from noisy tenants so that you can bring them some meals when the girlfriend gets diagnosed with a serious illness next week.  That church that you are always complaining about?  Maybe He has placed you there to make it a little more bearable for that new family that just immigrated to your country and your community.

To spend your time complaining - rather than doing the loving, gracing, helping, service that God has placed and called you to accomplish in your specific life-circumstance is to be slothful.  To long to be somewhere else... doing something else(often perceived as being easier, more enjoyable, more "me"), something other than the here-and-now work of God, is Sloth.

I'm not sure I like that... 

...but it could be true.

2c</sub>