Laziness and the Gladness of God

At some point today, you will encounter a task you need to do but would really rather not do.

You will stare with dread at your Anatomy and Physiology textbook. Or you will hear your three-year-old spill a jar of jellybeans across the kitchen floor. Or you will remember you have a technical report due today. Or you will see crusty dishes on the counter.

And in that moment, the voice of laziness may be loud in your mind. “Grab your phone” or “Grab a snack,” it will insist. Or perhaps more subtly: “Take care of other work first.” My own laziness loves to hide behind a show of hustle and bustle. I sometimes check a dozen tasks off my to-do list while neglecting the most necessary one, like a man sidestepping a large hole in his living-room floor to dust the shelves.

Scripture rouses our inner sluggard in many ways:

• “Look to the future,” says Proverbs 20:4, “and remember that laziness today brings pain tomorrow.”
• “Look to those around you,” says Proverbs 10:26, “and remember that laziness undermines love.”
• “Look to your own peace of mind,” says Ecclesiastes 5:12, “and remember the sweetness of the laborer’s sleep.”

Alongside these needed reminders, I’ve recently found help from another: There is no task, however unpleasant, that you cannot accomplish with joy.

Serve the Lord with Gladness

Laziness draws much of its power from one unstated belief: I cannot do the task set before me with joy. Therefore, if I’m going to do it, I will need to summon as much willpower as I can.

But that’s not true. You can read the textbook, sweep up the jellybeans, write the report, and clean the dishes with joy. You may not giggle as you work. You may not love the task so much that you spill more jellybeans just for fun. But the command to “serve the Lord with gladness” is not reserved for our favorite kinds of service (Psalm 100:2). The words apply everywhere and always. And if God commands gladness, God can give gladness.

The apostle Paul issued his own version of “serve the Lord with gladness” when he addressed bondservants in Ephesus. Servitude was not an enviable position in the ancient world. Thankless and tiresome duties filled many bondservants’ days. Yet Paul still called these brothers and sisters to “[render] service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man” (Ephesians 6:7).

“In Christ, you don’t have to clean the dishes with a murmur and a grumble. You can actually do so with gladness.”

For Christians, the opposite of laziness is not just working hard but working hard with gladness and a good will. I know that may sound discouraging — “You’re telling me I need to not only clean the dishes but somehow enjoy doing so?” But let’s reframe the call like this: In Christ, you don’t have to clean the dishes with a murmur and a grumble. You can actually do so with gladness. And if you believe you can do any task with gladness, you’re more likely to take the first step.

Where does that gladness come from, though? It comes from two little words in both Psalm 100:2 and Ephesians 6:7: “the Lord.” Whatever task you face, the Lord Jesus commissions you and promises to strengthen and reward you.

Jesus Commissions You

Several years ago, a friend prayed for me in a way that still strikes me. He said, “Father, please help Scott to do his work today as if Jesus himself had asked him to do it, as if Jesus himself were his boss.” I had never thought of my work that way — and what a difference it made.

Paul guides us to find the Lord Jesus in the details of our God-given callings. The Ephesian bondservants were first and foremost “bondservants of Christ” who “[rendered] service . . . to the Lord” (Ephesians 6:6–7). Or as he told bondservants in Colossae, “You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:24). Day after day, these servants heard their masters command, “Make dinner” or “Clean the entryway” or “Deliver this letter.” But behind each instruction, Jesus wanted them to hear his voice.

How might you tidy your living room if Jesus himself asked you to do it? How might you take out the trash? How might you study for a test, or prepare a slideshow, or serve a hard-to-love church member? Would you receive the task differently if it came from the one who died for you, rose for you, and rescued you?

“Our company is the Kingdom of Heaven. Our boss is Christ the Lord.”

We tend to work gladly when we love the one we work for. And Christians work for the Lord Jesus in whatever we do, whether we ring up groceries, deliver packages, change diapers, or perform surgeries (Colossians 3:17). Our company is the Kingdom of Heaven. Our boss is Christ the Lord. So when you face an unpleasant task today, remember that the work comes from the one who has loved you with an everlasting love.

Of course, in a digital world like ours, not every task that comes our way is ours to handle; not every need we hear about is ours to meet. But if the work before us lies in the path of our life callings — as a husband or wife, father or mother, student or employee, and so on — then we can safely assume the work has come down from above.

Jesus Strengthens You

Sometimes, we look at a task before us, measure it against our own desire or strength, and wonder where in the world we’re going to find the resources we need. When nine-tenths of us begs to do anything except write the research paper or clear out the gutters, where does the one-tenth find help?

In Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, the great missionary to China gives us an image worth remembering as we face unwelcome work:

It little matters to my servant whether I send him to buy a few cash worth of things, or the most expensive articles. In either case he looks to me for the money and brings me the purchases. So, if God should place me in serious perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in positions of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength? (165)

Likewise, it little matters whether our Lord sends us to do a great, exciting task or one we would rather avoid our whole lives. If he should give us work that requires more strength than we have, won’t he also supply what we lack? Our Lord is no Pharaoh; if he bids us make bricks, won’t he give us the straw (Exodus 5:5–9)?

Too often, as I stare at some hard task, I assume my weakness and unwillingness are unchangeable. But when I think this way, I fail to account for the one “who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). I do not reckon with the possibility of serving “by the strength that God supplies” (1 Peter 4:11). I assume prayer has no power to change how I feel.

Jesus not only hands us the work we do. He also takes us by the hand and strengthens us for the work — if only we’ll look to him, depend on him, and trust in his promises. “Lord, help me serve you with gladness” is a request he loves to answer.

Jesus Rewards You

We will face harder tasks, of course, than homework and dishes. But don’t exclude these small duties from the work God has set before you and for which he will reward you. Isn’t it a reward to lie down at night spent but satisfied? Isn’t it a reward to say with Paul, “I worked hard . . . though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10)? Isn’t it a reward to hear even a whisper of our Lord’s “Well done”? If we can glorify God by eating and drinking (1 Corinthians 10:31), then we can glorify him by reading and writing and cleaning and serving and planning and any other little work our laziness tempts us to neglect.

What a kind Lord we have. If he thus commissions us, strengthens us, and rewards us, we don’t have to listen to our laziness when it tells us only drudgery and gloom lie ahead. We can instead look unpleasant tasks in the face, pray for help, and then, with God’s promises in hand, serve our Lord Jesus with gladness.