The Sluggard Says

           The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside! I’ll be killed in the public square!”  (Proverbs 22:13)

          Sluggard: A habitually lazy person who avoids work and responsibility, often leading to negative consequences.

          Habit: A settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.

          Let me begin by saying that, as far as I am concerned, the only person whose picture goes with this post is mine. If you see yourself, respond accordingly, but I’m not pointing the finger at anyone but me (unless I specifically say otherwise.) Now, let me add to that the fact that, more often than not, we act based on our habits. A habitually lazy person, therefore, probably has what they think is a good reason for what they do. After all, “there’s a lion outside!” What sane person (which automatically excludes photographers) would go outside when there’s a lion?

          It’s possible that the person who claims there’s a lion outside may not be a sluggard as much as they are fearful. Again, it makes sense to not go outside if there’s a lion out there, and fear of a lion is reasonable if there are reports of said lion. It’s not reasonable if no one has seen a lion wandering the streets in the past year (two years, ten years, hundred years).

          And here is where I find myself looking in the mirror. When it comes to doing some things, like marketing my books, I want to cry that there’s a lion in the streets. It requires that I do something I’m not comfortable doing. It’s not speaking  before an audience, it’s one-to-one or one-to-a-few. That’s harder. It’s also not just speaking to people. It’s trying to convince them to pay me for copies of a story I wrote. If it were non-fiction, I might be able to justify it. (“Oh no! There’s a lion outside!”)

          Keep in mind that I have enjoyed speaking in public. I argue with people on social media. I have driven thousands of miles by myself, sometimes into areas where there have been hurricanes. I survived Erie’s Snowmageddon 2024. I am learning to forage and garden and eat things other people might not dare to try. I’ll gladly talk to just about anyone about plants or any of a fairly large number of topics. I’ve gotten out of the car and jogged back to where I saw a coyote. (remember what I said about photographers.)

          The other side of this is that if I market my books, I have to add activities to my workload. I have to do something. Something more. I already have enough to do. Ignore the fact that spending 15 minutes per week marketing would be a huge improvement. But, there’s a lion outside.

          All of this is my example. I don’t know if you have something in your life to which you respond that there’s a lion outside. If so, we both need to take that matter to God, and ask Him to guide us into a new habit.