Torpor

“Torpor” is often a word needing defining. Living illustrations of it abound. Synonyms are inertia, apathy, lethargic indifference, sluggish inactivity. A simpler summary word for it is “laziness.”

Lazy people often seek to dignify it by such statements as: I am not lazy, just in the energy saving mode. I am not unmotivated. I am just highly motivated to do nothing. Lazy is such an ugly word. I prefer to call it selective participation.

Or, whenever I feel the need to exercise, I lie down until it goes away. I’m a multitasking procrastinator. I can put off multiple things at once.

Benjamin Franklin described it saying “…laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him.”       

In reality even ignorance is the child of laziness. A lazy person lacks the initiative to push back the frontier of ignorance. A motivated person will search for an answer any time knowledge is lacking.

The idea of what we are expected to be and do is recorded in the first book of the Bible, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15)

We are the contemporary Adam and Even to whom that truth is now applicable. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them…” (Ephesians 2:10)

Therefore, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…” (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

Life was never intended to be easy, much less to accommodate laziness.

Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, antidote with this bromide, “Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”

The last phrase of that statement still resonates.

King Solomon used a small insect to illustrate a big principle. He said, “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.” (Proverbs 6: 6 – 8) Lessons abound in that elemental axiom.

For starters an ant has no commander driving it to achieve. It is a self-starter. There is no one around to keep watch and demand excellence. It is in its nature to work and be a responsible worker.

An ant is initiatively farsighted. It plans ahead in the summer for the winter by storing up resources. It is wisdom that drives the ant to be creative.

Time is a gift from God. We must constantly be aware that our clock is ticking away and the final day will come when we will run out of time. Hence, let us live our lives purposefully and productively for the Lord. We shall have to give an account to the Lord regarding our conduct of a steward of all He has given us.

We are to live carefully as people who are wise, making the best use of our time, because we are living in dark and evil days. (Ephesians 5:15–16).