The addiction cycle is the latch that often fastens men down in other destructive cycles of laziness. Addiction provides the illusion that divine joy is attainable without God—and with the illusive promise of life-giving rest through addictive indulgence, what need is there for the goodness of work, or (even more absurd) Sabbath rest?
The Addiction Cycle: Fatigue ? Indulgence ? Satisfaction ? Negligence ? Growing External Pressures ? Craving ? Fatigue
4. Unmotivated Cycle
Everyone around us screams, “Work!” So men just do, and quickly realize how purposeless work is as an end in its own. Why work? Peer pressure will last only so long. A failure to give a justified, or purposeful, or existentially compelling reason for work gives men an excuse to just stop working. The question isn’t, “Why are men so lazy?” but, “Why haven’t men found something worth working for?”
Without motivation—without purpose—what reason does a man have to do anything at all? The longer the unmotivated man remains sedentary, the more convinced he is that work simply isn’t worth it.
The Unmotivated Cycle: Lack of Motivation ? Inactivity ? Work Seems Harder ? Work Seems Less Worth the Effort ? Lack of Motivation
5. Hobby Cycle
Guys today have a quarter-life crisis and get into biking, home-brewing, fishing, gaming or lifting. Guys do stuff now not to provide, but to convince the world (and maybe themselves) that they are just as worthwhile as their hard-working fathers. They are in a cycle of what David Powlison calls innocent pleasures. “The innocent pleasures work in exactly the opposite way as the addictive cycle. It takes less and less to push the lever of joy. Less stimulus is needed for greater joy.”
What do we need for real joy? Well, what is real joy (for the lazy hobby guy)? It is joy that gets us through life. Not the joy of living, but of surviving. What does that surviving-joy look like for the lazy man? Avoiding more and more work—escaping into a hobby. Hobbies can be good gifts from God, but men were made to work. Proficient entertainment cannot replace profession in the fight to live. “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied” (Proverbs 13:4).
The Hobby Cycle: Hobby ? Excuses Not to Work ? More Time for Hobby ? More Hobby ? Less Interest in Work ? More Hobby
A Hammer, Not a Gavel
This may feel like an atomic bomb of judgment to some. Seeing more of my own laziness has certainly felt that way to me. If we’re honest, though, the lazy man hates himself, and so we will work as hard to avoid condemnation as we do to avoid work. The truth about our laziness, however, is not a final gavel of guilt, but a tool—a hammer, even—for escaping the shackles of our life-stealing lethargy.
Before we can escape patterns of laziness, we need to understand patterns of laziness: We’re shackled by cycles of sin—retreat and repeat—and they’re not easy to escape. We need to know what we need—where and how God’s grace comes to the lazy man.
The wise king knows, “The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving” (Proverbs 14:8). What is the first thing a lazy man can do to find his way out of laziness? He can know with personal nuance and practical specificity the position that he is in “to discern his way.”
“The lazy man works as hard to avoid condemnation as he does to avoid work.” Tweet
And the grace of God begins slowly, gradually and inch by inch. Stay in the fight. There is hope for a way out of your cycle—out of the weight that keeps you in bed, in front of the TV, out of your workplace and church. Your story is far from over.
