Last weekend, I preached a message on the “deadly” sin of sloth or laziness. We have been working our way through a series on the Seven Deadly Sins and last week was sloth. In preparing the message, I recognized once again that sloth is my most challenging sin of the seven. While I work hard much of the time, I’m prone to bouts of laziness. After finishing a message or some other significant task, I used to “reward” myself by playing a game of spider solitaire. If I lost the game, I’m competitive enough that I would play again. When I would win, I would sometimes say to myself, “I’ll try that again.” The result was often wasting half an hour or more. I stopped doing that after a message I preached several years ago on spiritual disciplines.
That didn’t eradicate sloth from my life. Again, I get as much done as most pastors, and likely more than many, but that isn’t the standard by which I get to judge sloth in my life. The standard is my own potential, what God has planned for me. By that standard, I often fall short. Yes, we’re all saved by grace through faith, so none of us can boast. And a verse later we’re reminded we were created to do good works. The connection between work and rest is a vital one, one to which God dedicated significant space in the Bible to address. The standard is to work six days and rest one. Of course we’re also to rest each day at the end of the work. So where does sloth come in?
For me it comes in the ten minutes after I complete a project. Certainly, after completing a project taking a few minutes to rest or refocus makes a great deal of sense, but I often find myself not refocusing so much as losing focus, as indulging in an a time-wasting activity. It won’t be an activity that is necessarily sinful, but it will distract me from the work of the day or the moment of rest I need. The power of those ten minutes is vital.If I do, indeed, rest and re-focus moving on to the next task, then my day is exponentially more productive than if I get side-tracked.
Have you experienced this? Do you experience the power of those ten minutes, or are you disciplined enough that they don’t impact your work and rest cycles? I have been much more intentional about using those ten minute opportunities wisely from Saturday through today, and I am amazed at how many more important tasks I have started and completed than usual. As I remind us so often: The unexamined life is not worth living. This is definitely an area that’s worth examining and adjusting if its an area that’s keeping you from the effectiveness God created you to have as a leader.
Here’s to leading better by managing the power of the ten minutes–today!