Sloth Revisited
Today I continue my reflections on sloth.
What I specifically want to focus on tonight is how sloth distracts us from being self-aware. While sloth is normally associated with lack of activity, it can also manifest itself in an excess of activity. I’ll focus on how an excess of activity leads to sloth.
What does your schedule look like? How busy are you? I imagine relatively busy. Some people pride themselves in how busy they are. A busy schedule reflects an active lifestyle. These people believe that life goes nowhere if all you do is just sit around. Rather, life is a thing to be grasped and lived actively and courageously.
These people aren’t wrong. A life of activity is something to be desired. However, sloth comes in to play when these activities no longer become opportunities to grow or mature but weights that bog us down and distract us from our priorities. Rather than living life and fostering relationships, an excess of activity enslaves us.
<We are captive to our schedules, commitments, activities and meetings. Instead of making or choosing our plans, our plans have chosen us and have made us their slaves. Rather than expressing our freedom through our excess of activity, we have forfeited it.
This excess of activity not only enslaves the individual but distracts him from his priorities. He cannot focus on loving/serving others and acquiring virtue if he is continually subjected to prior commitments. There’s too much noise to focus. Perhaps that’s why the psalmist writes of God urging his children to be still and know. If we are so caught up in other things, we are incapable of focusing on loving God and loving others.
The content of our activities does not nullify the effects of sloth. We could throw ourselves into serving others, but what good is it if we neglect our family or our own personal development? Similarly, what good are we to others if we do not reach out to our brethren in love? In both cases, we lack true depth and have mistaken a life of complete activity or complete rest for piety.
WP3
Aegis 