Being a sluggard isn’t just about loving sleep. Slothfulness actually has more to do with not doing the right thing in the right moment. A sluggard is one who does the thing which he wants to do instead of the thing he is called to do. (Of course when the gospel transforms our hearts our want to and our called to typically merge).
I try to read a chapter of Proverbs every day and yesterday I read about the sluggard in Proverbs 26. And these words particularly struck me, “The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly”. And my mind started making a few connections to social media.
I’m convinced that, at least for me, social media is the playground of sluggardry. I’ve found that when I am most prone to engage in foolish Twitter battles it’s because I don’t want to tackle the very real issues that I have in front of me.
I wouldn’t be entirely forthright if I didn’t confess that some of my blogging and social media engagement a couple years ago flowed out of being absolutely miserable in my place of ministry. Blogging was a way to somehow feel that I still mattered—whenever almost everything around me was saying that I didn’t. And blogging provided an avenue for me to maintain a mirage of knowing what I was doing while everything around me was falling apart.
I know that my story isn’t quite that black and white. The entirety of my ministry and writing wasn’t defined by these things, but it was a part of them. Much has changed within my heart in the last couple years—and my setting has only changed within the last year. In a very real way my entire worldview has changed towards one grounded in hope. And that’s made my writing difficult. Not only because I’m trying to learn to speak this new language of hope but because it’s no longer motivated out of escapism.
I don’t think it’s an accident that the articles which gain the most traffic are those which are of the “lion in the street” variety. One has to wonder if it’s more than coincidence that the verbiage of sluggards and the coinage of “discernment” bloggers is one and the same.
I suppose some people are fighting real lions and shepherds are fighting real wolves. But can’t we be honest and say that at times it’s far easier to warn someone five states away about a lion in their street than to have the difficult coffee-breathed conversation with the disgruntled member down the street?
God has given some folks a wider ministry which might include proclaiming truth to power and pointing out truth in the midst of error. But I’ll speak for myself and say that for the most part—and in this particular season—God has given me a much more narrow scope of responsibility. And it’s an act of slothfulness for me to neglect those things to engage in lengthy online debates.
I might be alone in this. But I think it’s worth asking the question. Am I engaging on social media because I’m trying to avoid something in front of my face? Am I engaging in this Twitter battle because I’m not engaging in the one I need to be in front of me?
Is blogging sloth? Could be. But it’s not necessarily. Am I doing what God is calling me to do in this very moment? That’s how you go about answering that question. And it’s a question we need to ask.
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