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20th April 2008 PM 

LET'S NOT BE LAZY         Pastor Colin Meadows

Proverbs 6:6-11, 26:13-16

Ø Sluggards and ants! In our studies in the book of Proverbs we come now to the theme of living productive lives, lives that have purpose and direction. The Bible uses two creatures here to contrast how we should and should not live. The word translated ‘sluggard’ in the NIV is literally the sloth.

Sloths are such interesting creatures. Perhaps their most endearing feature is their slowness. There is The Sloth Club on the internet with its motto ‘Slow is Beautiful’. These animals take forever to get places. They tend to be small in stature and just hang about in trees all week long. They eat mostly foliage which is low in energy content, so they don’t have the energy to do much! A biologist in Central America watched a sloth near his home move from one tree to the next. It took the sluggish animal two weeks to cover the distance!

Ants on the other hand are the very opposite. Incredibly active and living in colonies of up to five million individuals, they work together with passion for the common good. There are over 12,000 species of ants worldwide and an average ant can lift fifty times their own body weight. In ancient literature they were often seen as wise creatures, able to learn from their own mistakes, clever and industrious and hard working. They worked for the well being of the whole colony and not just for themselves, hunting and collecting food to be stored ready for times of need. The ant is, in other words, the very opposite of the sloth! God thus contrasts the two here in these verses.

Prov 6:6 “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!”

Let’s thus consider the ways of the ant.

Ø Learn from ants! Today in business circles and in the community as a whole there is a growing body of research being devoted to studying ant behaviour. Complex business strategies are being developed from the study of ant colonies. Swarm intelligence, for instance, whereby scientists examine the patterns when ants leave and return to their nest has been used by South West Airlines to streamline their cargo handling operations in the US, saving the company more than $10 million a year.

Unilever, a giant pharmaceutical company, has used an ant movement algorithm to streamline its production processes. Financial services provider, Capital One, have changed their business strategies after studies of how one ant colony takes over another colony. Even the way ant nests are built has helped in the restructuring of companies and in improving building design. Furthermore studies of army ants have aided in improving traffic flow on major congestion points in some cities. It was discovered that the ants moved out from the colony in two streams of traffic and returned via a stream in the middle. I love The Message translation of this passage…

‘You lazy fool, look at an ant. Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two. Nobody has to tell it what to do. All summer it stores up food; at harvest it stockpiles provisions. So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing? How long before you get out of bed?  A nap here, a nap there, a day off here , a day off there, sit back, take it easy – do you know what comes next? Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life, poverty your permanent houseguest!’

Ants are thus amazingly clever and industrious workers! What can we learn from them as people who are seeking to please God?

Ø Seek to be self-disciplined Studies conducted at Hull University in the UK have shown that ants are basically self-organized and don’t need a central organizational structure. In other words, ants are able to work without supervision. They just get on with what they need to do. Let us learn to work without supervision. There is no one there telling you to get moving.

Prov 6:7-8 “It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.”

Do you wait around for someone to tell you what to do? Or do you listen to God’s Holy Spirit and quietly get on with the task at hand. Let us be people who are self-motivated. Ants just get on and do what needs to be done. They don’t procrastinate about the difficulties that face them in looking for food, or the obstacles that they must overcome. They just get out of bed each day and get moving! Let us grow to do the same. Being self-disciplined, however, can be tough.

Prov 6:9 “How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?”

We too need to be followers of Jesus who live disciplined lives, who use our days wisely. If you are a morning person then use that time carefully for the more important matters that need to be done and save other things for later. Watch for the unproductive parts of your day and see how you can use those times more wisely. Perhaps fit in some relaxing activity when your enthusiasm is waning, take a break, but then get back to the task. I seek to do that in my life. I divide my day up into segments and tackle tasks in order of priority. There will always be interruptions and changes will need to be done. Be flexible but not fluid! A friend in Africa was watching me one day and he noted, ‘Colin, you keep interrupting yourself!’ I would jump from one thing to another, accomplishing little. I thus changed and sought to be more intentional in how I approached the tasks I felt God had give to me to do.

Yes, live a self-disciplined life.

Ø Seek to be a good witness to others

Let us be good examples of the gospel, living out in our lives.

Prov 10:26 “A lazy employee will give you nothing but trouble; it’s vinegar in the mouth, smoke in the eyes.” (The Message)

Have you tasted vinegar anytime? Not a good taste! Or perhaps you have been close to a fire in the bush and found your eyes streaming from the discomfort. Such is the effect that the sloth-like person has on others who work around them. We have been entrusted with the gospel to live a life of fruitfulness. Let us not obscure the message by our laziness. Instead let us so live that we demonstrate and teach others the good news of Jesus.

Ants are great at doing this. Through their industrious nature they pass on what they have learnt to their fellow ants. A research paper in Nature Jan 12, 2006 tells of studies by Franks and Richards at Bristol University. They found that ants display what they call tandem running. A teacher ant would run in front, followed by a learner ant. When the learner ant was not sure of the way, it would stop and the teacher ant would then stop too. When the learner felt ready to go again, it would tap the legs of the leader ant and off they would go. In this way, the learner quickly learnt the pathway to food and would then itself become a teacher ant! It was found that it took the teacher ant about four times as long to get to the food this way but the long term benefit was huge.

What a wonderful parallel for us as messengers of God’s truth. Let us lead others, helping them to learn as they go on the journey to find Jesus, the bread of life. It will take time but this is time well spent. Let’s be an effective messenger. In other words, let us be diligent.

Ø Diligence will bring reward Ants are industrious and this pays off in the long haul. Sloths are not and this leads to unfulfilled desire.

Prov 10:4 “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.”

Let us be diligent. Diligence is to apply oneself long-term to the task at hand. There is a long term benefit from living in this manner.

Prov 13:4 “The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.”

Let us not just sit around taking up space and then later expect to see God provide for our needs. Step out and see God provide.

Prov 20:4 “A sluggard does not plow in season; so at harvest time he looks but finds nothing.”

You might respond at this point and say surely we are saved by faith alone, not works, and you would be quite correct. We are saved by faith alone but saving faith is never alone. It always produces good works in a believer’s life. If there is no change, then where is the faith?

Ephesians 2:8-10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

When we have sought to honor God by sticking to the task, our hearts will be filled with a sense of fulfillment and joy in having done what God wanted us to do.

Prov 12:24 “Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labour.”

The Message notes ‘The diligent find freedom in their work; the lazy are oppressed by work.’ People who discipline themselves to the task will be masters of their own bodies while lazy people end up as slaves. It is a liberating and joyful experience to accomplish a task which you sense God had called you to do. Do you have a joy in your heart about what you are doing?  Or is it sheer drudgery, dreading each day when you wake up and think about what you need to do? Ask God to work in your situation, so that there might be a sense of joy, even in the midst of difficult circumstances.

Ø Let’s stop making excuses for our laziness! Sometimes we try to explain away our laziness by making excuses. We can’t do anything, we claim, because the obstacles are just too great. 

Prov 22:13 The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion outside!’ or, ‘I will be murdered in the streets!’”

Don’t try to cover up for laziness by coming up with such excuse! I can’t go out there for there is a lion! I could get shot! Unreasonable excuses… sometimes the excuses sound quite reasonable - that we don’t have time, that we aren’t qualified, that someone else could do it much better, that we are too tired, too old, too young, etc. If we are really honest, we just don’t want to make the effort.

Prov 26:13-16  “The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!’ As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.”

When we allow excuses to take their course, then procrastination takes over. Procrastination is an interesting word, for it is derived from the Latin word meaning ‘until tomorrow’. Let’s put it off until tomorrow! From studies, it has been found that students are one group in society that battle with this issue a lot! You are faced with so many different things to do that you don’t know where to begin. It is just too hard right now so you shut down and roll over in bed. What do you need to do to tackle procrastination? I have traveled with procrastination as a companion for years so would like to put forward to few moves I have found helpful:

1.      Draw up a list of what needs to be done.

2.      Decide what task needs to be done first and what things can wait.

3.      Set realistic goals of what you will do.

4.      Make a start, no matter how small and feeble it seems.

5.      Don’t stop when the going gets tough!

6.      Reward yourself in small ways along the journey.

7.      Celebrate your achievements, no matter how small they appear.

Let’s thus put the excuses away and….

Ø Let’s together live diligent lives! It’s time to stop the excuses and instead get out of bed. Live a life of sacrificial service for others for God’s glory. Go out of your way to make a difference in someone else’s life today. It may cost you but in so doing you will bring honor to your Lord. And let’s do it together.

Hebrews 6:12 “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”

Imitate others who have lived lives of purpose and then others will seek to imitate you. And do it together. We are part of a family of believers so let us together seek to honor God.

A study conducted on army ants found that they were extremely effective in foraging for food because they worked together. They would march in a column, constantly keeping in touch with each other. If they came to an obstacle, they would together work out a way of getting round it. Potholes were then dug in a road they had to cross, and scientists watched what the ants would do. The ants came to the holes and then organized themselves into groups. One such group would then use their bodies to make a bridge from one side of the hole to the other for the others to cross over and thus go on to find food. These bridge building ants were willing to sacrifice and not eat for themselves so that others would be fed. Let us have hearts like that!

What about you tonight? On the sloth to ant continuum where do you fit? Is your motto ‘slow is beautiful’ or are you on a journey to living a life of purpose?  Let’s learn from the ant, for the glory of God.