Focus: Food for thought
Proverbs 13:4 (NKJV) The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.
There are lazy people and diligent people—and there are lots of others who are somewhere in between. Laziness may not characterize your life in every way, but we can all learn something from Proverbs 13:4.
Being told you’re lazy is not something any of us wants to hear…even if we are. Laziness has a way of making those who are lazy, become quite sensitive about it. If you’re depressed, it’s totally possible you don’t see yourself as lazy at all—just overwhelmed.
You may not want to read about laziness, and you might already be thinking you might stop reading this, but most of what I will say in this segment is written from my own personal experience. I am not pointing a finger at anyone…it’s just food for thought.
One of the things depression can do is make you not want to get out of bed. It’s common for depressed people to escape from their reality by sleeping more than normal. Their thoughts are exhausting to them, so they never feel like they’ve had enough rest. When they’re sleeping, they don’t have to think about their problems. When they’re awake, they think about their problems and begin to feel tired from thinking about them…so pretty soon they’re sleeping again.
Depression can make you want to look for ways to not have to face life. It can sometimes make you want to spend an abnormal amount of time in front of the TV or playing games—as a way of protecting yourself from the hard things going on in your family or friendships.
At any rate, watching TV helps you fall into a comfortable ‘zone’ with your regular programs. Your life becomes safely predictable, as you live vicariously—or as an observer. Your time is filled with ‘other people’, whose lives seem so much more interesting than your own. You may even begin to bond with some of the characters and feel like you really know them. Hours go by—but you don’t really see your passtime as laziness.
You might be bored with your life, but not know of any solutions for solving the situation. Maybe everyone you know seems to be so busy with their lives and you don’t see yourself fitting in with their busyness, so you just ‘veg out’, in one way or another.
The patterns of escaping reality almost always come about gradually. It’s completely possible you didn’t make the decision to ‘disengage’, it just happened little by little. Not being involved with people gives some people a pretty good excuse to let things go. When there’s not much chance anyone’s going to come over to see you, you don’t see much reason to keep things cleaned up, and a ‘Who cares?’ attitude can develop.
The problem with these kinds of behavior is that they become habits—or, places to ‘hide’. When you get used to being out of touch—it gets easier to turn down invitations and stop going places you don’t have to go. You start to prefer solitude, because being with people requires you to pay attention to their interests and focus on what they are saying—and at the moment, you just truly don’t feel like you have the energy to do that.
If these things have unintentionally been going on with you—a type of laziness has developed—a lull that you can’t seem to find the will to break out of. There is no way to make real progress in that limbo state, and according to Proverbs 13:4, it leads nowhere and gains nothing.
The verse goes on to say that the soul of the diligent shall be made rich. The soul of the diligent seeks after God. Having God is the same as possessing all things. Seeking after God brings new life because He is the source of life itself. You can’t seek after God and get more depressed. By not seeking after Him you will definitely get more depressed.
One thing is sure, things won’t change unless you determine that they will. If you don’t intentionally seek after God, you will lose your ‘edge’. When you don’t have an ‘edge’, you are ‘dull’.
Seek God and get life.
Declaration: I will find new strength by determining to break out of lazy patterns that are causing me to lose my ‘edge’. I will intentionally seek after God and win the battle against depression by fighting back.
All NEW STRENGTH posts are Copyright by Christina Cook Lee as of the date they were written and posted. Please request permission to re-post or re-blog. This material will be published as a book at the end of 2012, by the grace of God.To subscribe to New Strength, select ‘follow’ in the upper left corner of this page.
For music selections that will help bring hope and encouragement during your recovery from depression and addiction, browse:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW5unzXXC0k