The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside! I shall be slain in the streets!"
Proverbs 22:13
Essentially the verse is calling out the one who makes excuses for laziness and the avoidance of doing what is right or difficult in a timely fashion. The said sluggard has made up a terrifying and dangerous situation that gives excuse for his lack action. Am I calling myself a sluggard? Yes, at times I definitely fall into this trap, but there is much more than mere laziness involved here. When I become overwhelmed I sometimes procrastinate and do everything else in order to avoid what looks like a looming and impossible task. This is a form of making excuses and not trusting in God's promise to see me through what he has laid out for me to do. This can take many forms. One small example that was brought to my attention recently is practicing. The truth that follows is so obvious, but hit me in a new way. I was having a conversation with two friends and one said, "it is obedient to practice- to refine, use and keep up the skills and gifts God has granted you". So often we forget that the daily grind of life is a form of obedience and thus worship. Going to the gym, eating healthily and sleeping is obedient and God glorifying in that we are maintaining the ability of our bodies to carry out God's purposes with the gifts he has given us. The list goes on and on. Find your lions. We all have them.
Below are some pieces I extracted from a sermon given on this verse by Charles Spurgeon in 1882.
He turns over upon his bed to sleep again; for this is far more comfortable than to be meeting a lion, and falling a prey to his teeth. He means I think that there is a great difficulty—a terrible difficulty, quite too much of a difficulty for him to overcome. He has heard of lion-tamers and lion-killers, but he is not one. He has not the strength and the vigor to attack this dreadful enemy; he will even confess that he has not sufficient courage for such an encounter. The terrible difficulty which he foresees is more than he can face: it is a lion, and he is neither Samson, nor David, nor Daniel, and therefore he had rather leave the monster alone. Are there not many here who say much the same?
Though the promise is, “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet,” they have no heart for the conflict and therefore never win a victory.
Still you halt, because this lion is such a terrible lion that there never was the like of it. In all the woods, in all the forests, never was such a roaring beast as this. So you say, if you are wide awake enough to say as much as that. I tell you that you are trying to make yourself believe a lie, for your difficulties are no greater than many of us have surmounted by God’s grace. Your difficulties are not half as great as were those of Paul, and of those who lived in his day who had to carry their lives in their hands, and seemed every day given over to death for Jesus Christ’s sake, and yet bravely followed their Lord’s will notwithstanding all.
If you had lived in Madagascar years ago, when to be a Christian involved your being hurled down a precipice or being speared, I could see something in the excuse; but in a land like this the persecutions which are endured may be bitter, and the losses which are incurred may be heavy, but they are hardly worth mentioning as compared with the sufferings of the first ages. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the sufferings of the past times, and much less with the glory that shall be revealed in us. It will not do for you to talk so. It is idle talk; you do not believe it yourself though you whine like a coward, “I shall be slain in the streets.” If you were half a man you would never fear the streets or think it at all probable that a wild beast would pounce upon you there.
My (blog author) personal summary: Even if there legitimately is a lion, this is not an excuse to avoid facing it. Metaphorically, fearing a lion is not trusting God, which is another type of lion.
“Yes, but I have tried,” says one. Oh that is your lion is it? But how did you try? You tried in your own strength; and we do not invite you to do that any more for your strength is perfect weakness. Had you committed yourself to the keeping of Christ you would have another tale to tell and another song to sing, for he is faithful and he keeps those that are in his hand. If that is your lion, God grant that you may never hear it roar again. You are not asked to save yourself, or keep yourself, but to submit yourself to the grace of God, and surely that is able to keep you unto the end.
Life is like an evening; the longer you wait the darker it becomes. Delay bristles with danger, and the best fruit it can possibly bear is regret.
The real lion after all is sluggishness itself, aversion to the things of God.
The sermon in its entirety can be found here:
