I discussed the importance of rest in my last blog post. This beautiful thing called “rest” needs to be part of our everyday lives, but we also need to work hard.
With everything in life, there needs to be a balance. The area of rest and work is no exception. There’s a balance between not having enough rest and having too much. We can get very addicted to rest. And this addiction to rest is sometimes called “laziness.”
Most people are on one end of the spectrum or the other—the I-Can’t-Rest-Because-I-Have-Too-Much-To-Do end or the Do-I-Really-Have-to-Get-off-This-Comfy-Couch? end. It’s extremely hard to find a balance. Some people don’t know the meaning of the word “work” and others don’t know the meaning of the word “rest.”
Rest is necessary, but laziness is a sin. So what exactly is laziness? Basically, it’s spending more time relaxing than working. It’s a prolonged break. Some prolong it for a few hours, and others prolong it for a few decades.
Laziness is idleness, lethargy, and slothfulness. It’s the opposite of hard work.
Sometimes, once you discover how nice rest is, it’s hard to stop. Once you’ve spent an hour reading a book in the sunshine, it’s hard to go back inside and do the laundry.
But work is good. It gives us purpose.
You’ll feel very unmotivated and unsatisfied if you spend your life on the couch. Even when I spend just a few hours online, I feel guilty and dirty and useless. It’s definitely easy to waste three hours online checking my email and looking at blogs, but it’s not satisfying.
And good luck being lazy and getting away with it. God isn’t pleased when you are lazy. It’s not cute or funny.
It’s nice to sit back with a Mason jar full of sweet tea and watch others sweat it out. But does it bring lasting joy? Probably not.
I want to enjoy what I do, and even though I enjoy reading blogs and making brownies and browsing magazines, I won’t find real fulfillment in those things.
The hard worker not only gets rewarded with money; he also gets rewarded with satisfaction. It’s hard not to feel purposeful, but it’s also hard to return to the purposeful life after relaxation.
How do you go back to work after a vacation or a Sunday or a lunch break? And how do you do it with a smile on your face?
Find satisfaction in your work and remember that you will be rewarded. God sees you working hard—whether that is in school or in a job or in the home. Your actions are not overlooked.
“The one who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and the one who is unrighteous in a very little thing is also unrighteous in much.” (Luke 16:10 NASB)
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