Wednesday, April 20, 2016

The Discipline Series: Life Without Discipline - #7 We Develop Laziness (Slothfulness)


I have a neighbor with whom I talk pretty often. We talk about our lives and work and our families and a little bit of everything else, so I'd venture to say that we know each other well enough, and have shared enough to call each other friends. I appreciate who she is in my life.

Just recently, we talked over dinner, and she was sharing a pretty heavy cry of her heart that has become a regular part of our conversations. She desires to start a clothing and jewelry business and she also wants to create a non-profit organization to help people who have loss their jobs by way of lay off or unscrupulous termination get back to work. I always enjoy listening to her talk about her ideas because the passion she has for both endeavors is quite invigorating! It excites ME! I get excited when she's excited because I'm a passionate visionary myself. I know how she eats, sleeps, and breathes these ideas. I've been there (and am there). I know she can hardly work when she's at work because her thoughts are consumed with bringing her vision to life. She talked excitedly for about an hour at dinner, and for that entire hour, I was with her. Like I said, it's our routine to talk that 'thang through and through. But just like I did when she talked to me for a few months about the daycare plan (an AMAZING plan unlike anything that already exists), I began to ask her the tough questions; I can only talk for so long. After we've talked about it for as long as we have (months), and we KNOW the Lord has given a clear plan to bring it to life, why aren't we moving on the plan?

I asked her what she'd researched for the jewelry and clothing business. She told me she'd found a few more people to follow on Facebook and Instagram to get ideas. And I knew she'd hate my follow up, but I said it anyway. I said, "But the Lord already gave you the idea. Why do you keep looking at theirs?"

I asked if she'd given up on getting started, and she said she hadn't, but I told her it seemed like she had because I didn't see her doing anything to get going. And then, it came. The onslaught of excuses.
I'm just getting everything lined up right now. As soon as I get a day off when I can just be still and I don't have to run after Tank (her 2-year-old) and find ways to keep him out of my way, I can finally lay some ground work."

She didn't stop there. She went on with other reasons why she hadn't started yet. And just like the passion I've heard and the details of the "plans" for her vision, I've heard the excuses too. I've heard ALL of the reasons why she can't get started, even when I'm offering to help her since I know a thing or two about getting the wheels in motion. I've heard the ideas for months, and I've heard the excuses for months.

Because I care for her and want to see her do what the Lord has given her to do, I HAVE TO tell her the truth. I want her to be obedient to the Lord and experience His provision. There's NOTHING like watching Him provide EVERYTHING that's needed for us to do what He tells us to do. Absolutely NOTHING! I want her to experience His favor. I want her to see how He will cause people to rise up out of nowhere and from everywhere all at the same time to put their hands to work to make that vision come to pass. I want her to see how money will show up when she least expects it in the most amazing and unheard of, miraculous ways! And in those moments when she gets scared because of how big the vision is, I want her to understand that it's not even really her job to see it through. It's her job to submit to the Lord, get directions from Him and just do what He says do. He'll see it through to its big end. He always does!

She won't move though.

Her excuses have said to me, and they have said to God that she's lazy. Straight up. At the end of the day, no matter how she tries to skirt around it, she has developed laziness (slothfulness). She's not disciplined enough to take the vision the Lord has given her and make it come to life.

Of course, she came back with the same thing she always comes with. She said, for the millionth time, "Iantha, you're single. You work and all, but when you come home, you don't have to cook and see about anybody else. It's just you. You have the time to do what you do."

And like I tell her every time she comes at me with that, I said, "Look at all of those mothers and wives you follow on Instagram and Facebook. You're always telling me how you need to get like them and just flip the schedule in your home so you can be more productive. You've even said yourself that if you discipline yourself, you can get it done. You told me that you know you watch too much TV at night and especially on Saturdays. You told me you get up early in the mornings sometimes and that you could use that time, but you don't. And how much time are you spending looking at them on Instagram and Facebook? They're doing what they need to do and you're watching them instead of doing what you need to do. Come ooooon... These are things that you already know."




The truth is this. We're all tired when we come home from work, but there's something about a vision from God that quickens a tired body. There's something about knowing that what we have to do is bigger than us that makes a tired body forget about itself to focus on the needs of others. There's something about a man or woman, single or married, that MAKES time to do what the Lord has given them to do, regardless of what's going on in their lives. They discipline their minds. They discipline their schedules. They turn off the waste-of-time TV. They wake up early. They go to bed late. They shut out distractions. They get it done!

Laziness (slothfulness) SCREAMS life without discipline. Someone without discipline will exhibit laziness and lack of drive. And one moment of laziness, if allowed to persist, becomes weeks of laziness. And then months... And then...

In thinking about this installment of the discipline series, one scripture just kept ringing in my head. It wouldn't leave me alone. It's one that the Lord drops in my spirit every time I need to remind myself to push. Every time I need to remember that what He gave me to do is for others and that it's for something bigger than me, this scripture comes to mind.

"A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest--and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man." - Proverbs 6:10 (NIV)

I remember when the Lord TAUGHT ME that verse some years ago and gave me a visual that I'll never forget. He gave me the picture of an armed and extremely muscular man holding me down. Every time I tried to move, I couldn't. None of my squirms were even worth a try with him. And he stayed there. He was assigned to keep a tight grip on me. The Lord was showing me that every time I'm lazy and refuse to discipline myself to be about His business, poverty would lock me down just like that. And poverty in this verse does not just refer to lack of monetary provision. It refers to poverty in the mind, in advancement, in well being... Everything about us can experience a wave of poverty when we aren't purposefully productive. And we wonder why we don't feel like we're where we need to be or have what we think we should have. When we don't move in what we KNOW the Lord is telling us to do, we experience lack. I'm a witness!

Get moving on what the Lord has given you to do!

I told her, like I always tell her, to remember that there are souls waiting for what she has. By this point in the conversation, every time, she's admitting to just being lazy. She says it, and shakes her head, and puts her face in her hands, and talks to herself about herself. She confesses that she doesn't want to let God down. She tells me that she doesn't want people to miss out on what they need. She tells me that she doesn't want the Lord to pass her assignment on to someone else. And I always tell her the hard truth. I say, "Keep playing around being lazy, and He will. You'll see somebody downtown erecting a building with the name of the business he gave YOU in lights."

We always hug when all is said and done. We always move on to some other conversation. We always end on a high note. I just pray we won't always walk this same path. I pray the day soon comes when she takes the first step into His plan for her.

(She approves this message. *wink*)

Tomorrow
Life Without Discipline - # 8 Reckless Speech

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