The list of “Seven Deadly Sins” is not straight from the Bible, but instructive: pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth. There is a tradition that each deadly sin is personified by a Prince in Hell. Belphagor is the Prince of Sloth. (He appears in Milton’s “Paradise Lost.”)
Most people think of sloth as laziness, but sloth is more than laziness. Sloth is a combination of apathy, dejection, self-absorbed pity, and half-heartedness. Sloth is going through the motions without caring about the outcome. Sloth relishes pouring energy and focus into irrelevant details rather than solving core problems. Sloth admires the ideas of “shortcuts” which promise big gains without study, thought, or work. Sloth whispers shiny promises of “more with less” without delivering the more. Sloth is insidious and stealthy; Sloth avoids the light.
Sloth even knows how to be adorable. Eyeore, one of my favorite characters from the Pooh stories, is slothful. Fortunately, Eyeore has friends who have a soft spot in their hearts for him.
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Once you recognize Belphagor’s modus operandi, you’ll see it frequently.
- Sluggish organization work, relatively unproductive, with tremendous energy poured into appearances and slogans. Let’s reorganize because it’s been 17 months since the last one!
- The lies we tell ourselves about what we accomplished this week.
- Continuing inefficient, ineffective processes and practices long after most acknowledge they’re no longer helpful. No one steps up to change the status quo because that would be more uncomfortable.
- Procrastination from doing our real work, especially creative work and caring relationships. The latest Netflix series is much more fun.
- Massive media attention paid to the latest foolish thing someone somewhere said once upon a time, compared to that same energy applied to genuine challenges – teacher and nursing shortages, drug addiction and homelessness, failing education models, insufficient affordable housing, meeting energy demands responsibly, political corruption, and more.
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There are three dangers in how we think about sloth:
“Oh, these ignorant people, there’s no such thing as evil and demons and hell. We left all that behind when we developed modern psychology and neuroscience.”
“It’s not me, it’s just Belphagor controlling me! I’m helpless and powerless, so you can’t hold me accountable.”
“Those behaviors are everywhere, and people get away with it just fine, so why should I work differently?” (This illustrates the reinforcing power of Sloth.)
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What do we do about Belphagor and our propensity to sloth? As usual, the answer is simple and hard.
Recognizing sloth and accurately characterizing it is the first step.
Choose the wise and energetic focus, consistent with playing the long game.
In sum, don’t cooperate with Belphagor!
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This requires tough, resilient leadership, beginning with self-leadership.
One of the costs of mentoring and coaching leaders is that you get a face-on view of the garbage behaviors inside organizations. Some of these situations are truly ugly. Pride and immaturity repeatedly squash love. People sincerely try to make healthy community work. We have an apparently infinite capacity for sabotaging what should be beautiful and life-sustaining. This is particularly painful in religious communities.
I see so much of it that some days I despair and simply prefer to isolate myself from church life and deep relationships. (I suspect we’re commanded to gather together because we have seasons where we aren’t excited about it.) Down deep I crave strong fellowship. Experiences tend to feed my cynicism.
Therefore, I must preach to myself:
All human fellowship dissembles apart from the work of God. Remember what your granddad told you as a boy: “Don’t do things that make the Devil happy.” The Devil applauds when you’re cynical about community and church fellowship. And these leaders you see struggling with difficult situations? God is with them in the fire. God will use a remnant of them to accomplish mighty things in the years ahead.
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Sometimes the best way to preach to yourself is to ask yourself questions rather than make statements. Questions disarm our ego; our ego can’t bear reflection. I’ll share some of my question to restore perspective and battle doubt, in hopes you also find them helpful:
“How many billions of people are having a worse day than you? How many billions would trade for your problems in a heartbeat?”
“Did you forget that there will always be problems? As Dad would say, “No problems, no pay.”
“Which specific promise has God failed to keep?”
“Is God still enthroned? “Is God saying, ‘Oh, I didn’t see this coming’?” What can’t God do (other than lie)?”
“What’s the length of eternity?”
“How many times do need reminding that your feelings are your feelings and yet they are untrustworthy measures of the truth?”
“When was the last time being [angry, irritated, stymied with overwhelm] helped you?”
“Is this the end of the story?”
“If this isn’t working, what pivot would be helpful?”
“Are you thinking about this in the best possible way?”
“When did you stop believing that God would help you obey His commands?”
“What would following Christ look like?”
“Who needs your help, since this isn’t about you?”
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Today’s opportunity: Don’t cooperate with Belphagor!
