Hardworking Sloths: Disguising Spiritual Laziness

My family used to play "Where's Waldo?" with a three-toed sloth at the zoo; eventually we'd find him suspended like a hammock from a tree branch above us. I used to think he got a bad rap as nature's laziest creature. After all, I don't have the strength to hold myself upside down on a set of monkey bars for 10 seconds. Then a zoo volunteer explained that sloths have curved claws that allow them to dig into branches and hang without effort. Our sloth, it turns out, really was as unmotivated as he looked.

I found myself thinking about that lethargic critter the other day while listening to a recorded Eugene Peterson lecture and arguing with my MP3 player.

Peterson: Pastors are highly susceptible to the sin of sloth.

Me: What are you talking about? Pastors are some of the most overworked people alive.

Peterson: Sloth is most often evidenced in busyness … in frantic running around, trying to be everything to everyone, and then having no time to listen or pray, no time to become the person who is doing these things.

Score one for Peterson.

I'm not a pastor. But I am busy, like almost everyone I know. When Peterson declares that "the pastor's primary responsibility is to keep the community attentive to God," I can readily apply that job description to my roles as wife, mother, musician, and author. The mandate can be stated even more succinctly regarding my task as a human: Pay attention to God. If I don't, I'm guilty of spiritual sloth, no matter how hard I'm working. In truth, there is an inverse relationship between how overwhelmed I am doing things and how much energy I can give tobeingattentive.

But did I mention I'm really busy?

Part of the problem is that spiritual receptivity requires unglamorous practices like prayer, time in Scripture, and attentiveness to what God is doing in the people around me. Telling me, "Prayer promotes spiritual growth!" has as much wow-factor as announcing, "Reducing calories leads to weight loss!" I want somethingnew—a development that will lead to breakthrough. Peterson observes that spiritual disciplines have "not been tried and discarded because [they] didn't work, but tried and found difficult (and more than a little tedious) and so shelved in favor of something or other that could be fit into a busy [person's] schedule."

Scheduling is no small matter. Attending takes time without offering quantifiable results. It requires stillness in a culture that rewards industriousness. It's inefficient in a world that considers getting things done next to godliness. A pastor who refuses to be slothful in the areas of silence and reflection stands a good chance of getting fired.

Our emphasis on external productivity over internal fidelity goes back a long way. Consider the case of King Saul, reported in 1 Samuel 13. Early in his kingship, Saul and the prophet Samuel had an understanding: Samuel would lead the people spiritually, and Saul would lead militarily. However, holed up with his troops facing a brigade of Philistines, Saul faced a dilemma. Samuel failed to show up on time to offer the sacrifice that Saul and his men relied on to keep them in God's favor. As typically happens when things go off schedule, disorganization set in. The longer Saul waited, the more restless his men became; he was losing them.

Saul did what any good manager would do. He took action. He offered the sacrifice himself.

If I were conducting Saul's job evaluation, I'd give him a bonus. He took initiative and solved the problem, saving time and boosting morale in the process. But Samuel didn't see it that way. He told Saul he had failed to keep God's command, and thus would be deposed by an incoming king—a "man after God's own heart" better suited for the job.

God is not looking for leaders who take matters into their own hands. He values faithfulness over efficiency. It's no good to organize the whole world yet be oblivious to the God who created it and holds it together. Yes, we have practical commitments we need to take seriously. But part of being responsible is being response-able: centering our lives in such a way that we can respond to the world around us with the mind of Christ. Such response-ability is impossible if our obligations crowd out any opportunity to get to know him better.

It makes sense that the sloth is the official mascot of spiritual lethargy. I've begun to see my incessant busyness as the set of claws that keep me holding on for dear life, dug in, hanging upside down, not getting anywhere. With God's help, I want to let go, trusting him to show me how to live right side up. My job is to pay attention.

By Carolyn Arends

PLEASE HELP!

So, here's the deal; we need some help. We have some money to put toward our moving out of the hood; we can use our savings of about $1000 (that I'll put in this fund) but we could use some help making it the rest of the way.

As most of you know, we live on Madison Ave and Hall St right near the Fish Fry, and as the rowdy weekends and hangout is spent at that Fish Fry (I have no idea why), there also have been shootings on a few weekends. After I found a bullet in the crack of the sidewalk in our backyard, we decided that we had to move.

That requires us to need to get out of our current lease, spending $1,400 for that (two month's rent), and to move into our next place would be around $750 plus a $750 deposit; hence the $2,900 as our total. We wouldn't move or break our lease if we didn't feel like we had to, but we feel that we do have to for all of our safety.

Please help us make our goal! We know that we will get a little help if we ask... but we had to ask.

Thank you all SO much! If you have any questions, PLEASE ask. I would be more than happy to answer any and all questions; we're an open book. We're trying to raise these funds by the end of June (when we'd like to move). Any little bit would help, even if it's only $5.

To help financially, if you have a PayPal account, use this link (if you don't have a PayPal account you can still use this, but there is a fee):

http://hobndeyo.chipin.com/our-move-out-of-the-hood

If you would like to send a personal check, make it out like this (feel free to keep it anonymous):

To: Holly Carmichael

Memo: Fundraiser

Mail it to:

Holly Carmichael

1243 Madison Ave. SE

Grand Rapids, MI 49507

Thank you all SO MUCH! We promise to only use this money to move us out of this area and to be good stewards of your sacrificial gifts.

Matthew 6:25-34

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you,O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,and all these things will be added to you.

"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Surprise

(just some thoughts I wanted to get down)

Growing up, I've never had an easy time fitting in with the girls. I was always riding my bike around the neighborhood or putting on army camouflage and crawling through the fields with my guys friends or even just by myself... pretending. I've never been one to play with dolls or dress-up, which always really frustrated my older sister, Tami. If she could convince me to play Barbies with her, I insisted on only playing with the boy dolls while she could play with the girl dolls. There is a picture of me potty-training a doll that is still hanging in my parents hallway (along with many other family pictures) but I played with G.I. Joes and Legos far more often than any other toys.

Needless to say, I grew up a "tom-boy" and I didn't seem to care much whether that was weird or different. I've always been my-own-me and have never given much notice to what everyone else is doing. I wore painted pants and flannel through my sophomore, junior, and senior year of high school because art was way more important to me than what I looked like. It was way more convenient to wear cruddy clothes to school since most of my classes were art or theater which would require me to change clothes... and I was far to lazy to dress and re-dress. I don't wear painted pants anymore (sadly, mostly to do with me not being as active in art) but I hardly wear anything besides sweatpants and a T-shirt (I totally qualify for the show "What Not To Wear").

As a 25 year old woman, I am surprised to find myself craving to have a daughter. I have a dream of being able to have this great relationship with her and be able to talk about anything and everything. I'm surprised because while pregnant with Logan, I felt strongly that it was a boy and I told people that "God wouldn't give me a girl, I wouldn't know what to do with her!" Yet, I have this craving.

I am blessed to have some amazing women in my life that have teenage daughters and they have the most beautiful relationships with them and I can't help but desire that for myself. I have worked with Jr. High girls for quite a few years and I have loved our years together.

I have fear that if Adam and I try for another kiddo that we will have another high maintenance child and I just don't think we have the patience for another. However, I know that God would provide what is best for us regardless of what we think, but I'm also afraid that if we do have a more easy-going kid, that we would have some favoritism to this child. Normal yet pointless fears, but they do weigh heavily in our decision (of whether or not) to have another kid.

There's no rush of course, but still a big decision. :)