SLOTH
A refusal to accept opportunities for growth, service, or sacrifice. Laziness. One can be a hard worker, be career-oriented and driven to succeed, yet be lazy in what really matters, the matters of the spirit. Another form of laziness is apathy, willfully remaining ignorant of spiritual matters. The apathetic person drifts through life having no purpose or direction and is really asleep to his own being. The ancients called this acedia, from the Greek akedia-meaning an indifference, literally an absence of caring. Not merely a neglect of duty, although that can a symptom, but the refusal of joy. It is allied with lethargy (To be asleep spiritually) and is often seen as despair or depression.
ACTION
A specific course taken towards a specific goal which is spiritual growth and service to God. Not to be mistaken for activity, which is often used as a means to avoid true spiritual action.
Hil's Blah
When I was newly sober I began to have all these revelations that were seemly "downloaded" into my consciousness. I think drinking stunted my spiritual growth-among others things. Then there were things/sayings that I had heard throughout my life that all of a sudden I could fully grasp...."Ah Ha" moments...I love these! When you ladies have them, please share them with me. It feeds my soul. I never shared mine with my sponsor because I felt silly because I though others might see it like, duh, common sense-but for me to actually process of them, grasp and then apply them-was huge!. Anyway, I just want you to always share stuff like this with me-no matter how small you think it is, I know from experience-It's not!
One day I was working in my flower garden in the front yard. From the street, and even from the entryway it looked great-so I just kept watering it but hadn't been that close to it. I bought some new flowers to plant in it. When I got close to the flower bed I could see that I had really let that it go! Weeds, leaves, undergrowth, dead limbs, etc...Now I wanted to add these fresh new flowers to it but I there was real work to do before I could.
I literally dug up all the existing plants and flowers, carefully set them aside while I cleaned up the bed and overturned the soil for re-planting. I replanted the existing plants differently this time to make room for the new flowers I had bought. By the time I was done the garden looked great! All fresh and new. I made sure to keep up with it from then on and it flourished. Grew and grew. It was full and bright and colorful :)
I realized while I was doing the work, that my garden was me. I, being the one cleaning and working to refigure everything to fit grow and flourish was God. It's like a 4th Step! I In Step 4 I was ripped wide open. My weeds, overgrowth, dead limbs, parasites removed....weak roots had to be exposed to the sunlight...all the filth underneath that I kept pouring water over....Except I was pouring booze on my "garden".
Resentments, past pain, secrets, shameful thought...Old ideas about God, politics, men and women, that were formed before I started drinking and then stunted.. Old perceptions and conceptions based on the reality that my mother lived and I repeated or out right rebelled against..How I saw myself based on how you saw me...Patterns that kept me looping the same sernio in every friendship and relationship and even in the workplace...
Like my garden I looked pretty good from the street...but the closer you got the more weeds/defects there were. When I would get into relationships I would want them to hurry up and marry me before e had a chance to to know the real me. I needed them to have a certain perception of me. The be in lust with with-always. They don't and they weren't! LOL!
In order for me to have anything healthy, real and sustainable that would bare good fruit, I had to die. The ego had to go.
The process of pruning a tree, or what I had to do to my poor garden, is a violent and brutal act for the tree or plant. The 4th Step was a brutal act for me because of ALL the years of unprocessed feelings and emotions and the results of the maladjusted ways I had dealt with them. Plus all the crappy decisions I made based on the level of spiritual maturity I was when I started drinking. All that results in plague on the soul.
Nothing that came in was being retained, because nothing was coming out.
So I could dump as much "self help" or whatever version of God I was playing with at the time, a new relationship. or job-but because I hadn't ever been planted properly or maintained, I would either not stick to it or repeat the same pattern. I hadn't gotten down to the root cause. The 4th Step completely uprooted and dismantled my ego. God decided what was to stay and what was to go. I couldn't add anything new that I wouldn't ultimately destroy unless there was a complete overhaul-my soil overturned...
Once it was, I could begin again, the right way. This is WHY our Steps are beyond necessary for people like us. We have wreckage. We have delusions. We have shame. We are absolutely insane! Most of my resentments weren't even real. I used them as an excuse to not grow and to play the victim. If I am blaming you, I don't have to look at me. It all seemed to scary to really address. It was hard, but God gave me the strength and courage to be honest. NOW-I want it all gone. Whatever "weeds" whatever defect, whatever scary memory, I want it out of me. It's a pariestical entity that I wouldn't want crawling around on my skin, yet somehow we let it slide in our soul. No more-not for me. God will reveal, I must have the courage to see and because of AA I have the tools to release it.
The same overgrowth can happen in sobriety. Untreated alcoholism/dry drunk in rampid in AA. We think we can hit a meeting or go through the work once, and stay clean and fed. I couldn't get drunk on yesterday's booze-I can't get spiritual fed on yesterday's prayers, inventory or work with others. I certainly can't grow if ego has recontrusted again.
Thankfully we have out maintenance program (not meetings) but Steps 10, 11 and 12. Meetings are a nice side dish...but the meat is in the daily work.
Step 10 protects me from overgrowth because I am looking at resentments, defects, amends I need to make...incorporating the house cleaning steps 4,5,6,7,8,9 into Step 10. Prayer and meditation, Step 11, on what I am learning, new revelations that come to me, Big Book, Scripture, something I learned from you or my sponsor...something I heard a AA speaker say...Working with Others, Step 12-keeps me grounded in my purpose-not sitting on the solution-which is the ultimate act of selfishness-giving away freely what was given to me.
I know we have and must have lives outside of AA-but in order to adequately do that life I must never think for one second that I am not a alcoholic with a alcoholic brain that is always pursuing me. Even if the alcohol part is removed, it will try to take me down in other areas. It manifesting in subtle ways like a newfound interest in spirituality or a new relationship. If I am not constantly vigilant the interest can turn into an obsession. Speaking from experience.
When we complete the Steps I always give away my plan and action...my daily routine for you to tweek into your own. My spiritual maintenance must come first. If I am not fed and nourished, I start to look elsewhere for that nourishment...Draining my boyfriends energy to overcompensate for my lack of working the program. Or, I may start to use life as a distraction. Saying that I am too busy to do Step work or work with that newcomer or go to that meeting....This is how ego reconstructs...convincing me that I don't have to go to any lengths today because I did the work yesterday.
DEFECTS OF CHARACTER
• PAGE 62 OF THE BIG BOOK
•“Whatever our protestation, are not most of us concerned with ourselves, our resentments, or our self-pity.”
•“Whatever our protestation, are not most of us concerned with ourselves, our resentments, or our self-pity.”
•“SELFISHNESS-self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion,
self-seeking and self-pity…”
• PAGE 62 OF THE BIG BOOK
•“So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn’t think so. Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it will kill us"
REMOVING DEFECTS OF CHARACTER OUR DESTINATION IS NEVER A PLACE BUT RATHER A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT THINGS
•The spiritual discovery…
•THE SENSE OF BEING FREED/RELEASED
•A GENUINE GRATITUDE
•A REAL HUMILITY LEADING TO TOLERANCE
•A PERVASIVE FORGIVENESS
•DEEP DISCOVERY AND SENSE OF “HOME”
Knowledge may expand but wisdom deepens
EGO DEVELOPMENT
•ALTERED WORLDVIEW INITIALLY DEVELOPED
BETWEEN TWO AND TEN YEARS OF AGE
0------2----------------------------10-------------------16
0-2: KINESTHETIC, NONLINEAR
2-10: WONDERFUL RECEIVER
10-16: SELF-REFLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS
THE EGO
•Striving for security and certainty
•Illusions
• Struggle to gain and to achieve which can lead
to GREED
•Always becoming, desiring and wanting
•Always afraid
• This fear is often beneath ANGER
•Comparing and contrasting
•When it believes it is better than others it is
euphoric
•PRIDEFUL and ARROGANT
•When it believes it is worse than another it
becomes depressed
• This can lead to ENVY and JEALOUSY
•Is temporal
•Psychological time
•Personal gain
•PRIDE
• Front man for the ego
•Always JUDGING others
•Has motives, opinions and positionalities
• To possess
• LUST
•Always wants more and better
•GLUTTONY THE EGO DEMANDS ATTACHMENT. IN ORDER TO LOVE MUST BE FREE OF ATTACHMENT AND CHARACTER DEFECTS ATTACHMENT TO ANOTHER (IMAGE WE HAVE OF THE OTHER) LEADS TO…
PRIDE OF POSSESSION WHICH LEADS TO…
SENSE OF SECURITY (ILLUSION) WHICH LEADS TO …
FEAR OF LOSING THE OTHER WHICH LEADS TO…
INCREASED ANXIETY AND GREATER ATTACHMENT
(BEING POSSESSED BY THE OTHER)
THE EGO
•“I” EXISTS…
ONLY WHEN I AM THINKING, IN CONFLICT, SUFFERING, OCCUPIED, JUDGING, COMPARING WITH STRAIN AND CHOICE
WHEN OCCUPIED WITH AMBITION OR WITH GOD
“MORE” IS THE WAY OF THE MIND KNOWING IT EXISTS
SENSATIONS PLUS THOUGHT EQUALS DESIRE
IN THE STATE OF “I”…
•ONE CANNOT MEDITATE
•ONE CANNOT HAVE A QUIET MIND
•ONE CANNOT FIND “TRUTH”,
THE “ACTUAL”, GOD, THE HOLY SPIRIT
OR THE “REAL”
EG0-BASED CHARACTER DEFECTS
PRIDE is excessive belief in
one's own abilities, that
interferes with the individual's
recognition of Grace. It has
been called the sin from which
all others arise. Pride is also
known as Vanity.
EG0-BASED CHARACTER DEFECTS
These considerations were taken from pages 48, 49, 66 & 67 of the Twelve
and Twelve The definitions from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
PRIDE: An over high opinion of oneself; exaggerated self esteem;
conceit, arrogance, vanity, self-satisfaction.
• Have I been so proud that I’ve been scorned
(disrespected) as a braggart (bragger)?
• Have I acted prideful, consciously or unconsciously out
of fear?
• Have I used pride to justify my excesses in my sex
conduct?
• Do I like to feel and act superior to others?
• SPIRITUAL PRIDE
GREED: Excessive desire for acquiring or having; desire for more
than one needs or deserves.
• Have I been so greedy that I’ve been or could be labeled a thief?
• Do I long for the possessions of others out of fear of not getting
enough?
• Do I let greed masquerade as ambition?
LUST: To feel an intense desire, especially sexual desire; to long:
after or for.
• Have I been lustful enough to rape, if not physically what about in
my mind?
• Do I fear I will never have the sex relations I need?
• Do I have sex excursions that have been dressed up in dreams or
delusions of romance?
ANGER: A strong feeling excited by a real or supposed injury; often
accompanied by a desire to take vengeance, or to obtain
satisfaction from the offending party; resentment; wrath.
• Have I been angry enough to murder?
• Do I get angry out of fear when my instinctive demands are threatened?
• Have I enjoyed self-righteous anger in the fact that many people annoy me
and that makes me superior to them?
• Have I enjoyed gossiping as a polite form of murder by character
assassination?
GLUTTONY: One who eats too much. One with a great capacity for
something; as, a glutton for work.
• Have I been gluttonous enough to ruin my health?
• Do I grab for everything I can, fearing I’ll never have enough?
• Do I bury myself in my work, hobbies or activities?
ENVY & JEALOUSY: To resent another for excellence or superiority in any
way, and to be desirous of acquiring it.
• Do I agonized over the chronic (persistent or recurring) pain of envy?
• Does seeing the ambitions of others materialize make me fear that mine
haven’t?
• Do I suffer from never being satisfied with what I have?
• Have I spent more time wishing for what others have than working towards
them?
• SCHADENFREUDE-TAKING PLEASURE IN THE MISFORTUNE OF OTHERS
SLOTH: Disinclination to action or labor; sluggishness; habitual indolence;
laziness, idleness; slowness; delay.
• Have I been paralyzed by sloth?
• Do I get alarmed with fear at the prospect of work?
• Do I work hard with no better motive than to be secure and slothful later on?
• Do I loaf and procrastinate?
• Do I work grudgingly and under half steam?
EG0-BASED CHARACTER DEFECTS
• THERE ARE MANY OTHERS MENTIONED INCLUDING…
•Judgmentalism
• Self-centeredness
•Resentful
•Prejudice
• Self-pity
• Self-righteousness
•Impatience
•Perfectionism……….etc.
EG0-BASED CHARACTER DEFECTS
• THE EGO FUNCTIONS IN THE PAST AND THE FUTURE AND IS FEAR BASED
CHARACTER DEFECTS CAN BE SEEN AS SPIRITUAL DEFICITS
CHARACTER DEFECTS RESPOND BEST TO SPIRITUAL METHODS SUCH AS…THE STEPS OF AA
A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT THINGS-SKILL SET
•Ask, admit and take action
• Listen
•PROCESS
•A spiritual program such as AA
• Surrender
• Acceptance
• Forgiveness
A NEW WAY OF LOOKING AT THINGS
•VEHICLES
•Contemplation
•Meditation
•Silence and solitude
•Prayer
•Spiritual study
•PROMISES
•A new worldview
•Positive emotions
TWELVE STEPS OF AA:CYCLE ONE
•1st Step- We admitted we were powerless over
alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable.
(ADMIT)
• 2nd Step- Came to believe that a Power greater
than ourselves could restore us to sanity. (ASK)
• 3rd Step- Made a decision to turn our will and our
lives over to the care of God as we understood
him. (ACT)
• 4th Step- Made a searching and fearless moral
inventory of ourselves. (ACT)
TWELVE STEPS OF AA:CYCLE TWO
• 5th Step- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another
human being the exact nature of our wrongs. (ADMIT)
• 6th Step- Were entirely ready to have God remove all
these defects of character.(ASK)
• 7th Step- Humbly asked Him to remove our
shortcomings. (ASK)
• 8th Step- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and
became willing to make amends to them all.(ACT)
• 9th Step- Made direct amends to such people wherever
possible, except when to do so would injure them or
others.(ACT)
TWELVE STEPS OF AA:CYCLE THREE
• 10th Step- Continued to take personal inventory
and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
(ADMIT)
• 11th Step- Sought through prayer and meditation
to improve our conscious contact with God as we
understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His
will for us and the power to carry that out. (ASK)
12th Step- Having had a spiritual awakening as
the result of these steps, we tried to carry this
message to alcoholics, and to practice these
principles in all of our affairs. (ACT)
Spiritual Sloth in The Bible
Sloths are extremely slow animals. Captive sloths sleep 15 to 20 hours every day. We are not to be like these animals. Serve the Lord with enthusiasm and have nothing to do with slothfulness, which is not a Christian trait. Too much sleep mixed with idle hands lead to poverty, hunger, disgrace, and suffering. Since the beginning God called us to be hard workers spiritually and physically. Don’t love sleep too much because slothfulness and idleness is a sin.
What does the Bible say?
1. Ecclesiastes 10:18 Through slothfulness the roof deteriorates, and a house leaks because of idleness.
2. Proverbs 12:24 Hard-working hands gain control, but lazy hands do slave labor.
3. Proverbs 13:4 The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.
4. Proverbs 12:27-28 A lazy hunter does not catch his prey, but a hard-working person becomes wealthy. Everlasting life is on the way of righteousness. Eternal death is not along its path.
5. Proverbs 26:16 The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.
Too much sleep leads to poverty.
6. Proverbs 19:15-16 Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and the negligent soul shall suffer hunger. He that keeps the commandment keeps his own soul, but he that despises his ways shall die.
7. Proverbs 6:9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?
8. Proverbs 26:12-15 There is one thing worse than a fool, and that is a man who is conceited. The lazy man won’t go out and work. “There might be a lion outside!” he says. He sticks to his bed like a door to its hinges! He is too tired even to lift his food from his dish to his mouth!
9. Proverbs 20:12-13 The ear that hears and the eye that sees— the Lord has made them both. Do not love sleep, lest you become impoverished; open your eyes so that you might be satisfied with food.
A virtuous woman works hard.
10. Proverbs 31:26-29 Her mouth she hath opened in wisdom, And the law of kindness is on her tongue. She is watching the ways of her household, And bread of sloth she eateth not. Her sons have risen up, and pronounce her happy, Her husband, and he praiseth her, Many are the daughters who have done worthily, Thou hast gone up above them all.
11. Proverbs 31:15-18 She gets up before dawn to prepare breakfast for her household and plans the day’s work for her servant girls. She goes out to inspect a field and buys it; with her own hands she plants a vineyard. She is energetic, a hard worker, and watches for bargains. She works far into the night!
Excuses
12. Proverbs 22:13 A lazy person says, “A lion! Right outside! I will surely die in the streets!”
Reminders
13. Romans 12:11-13 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
14. 2 Thessalonians 3:10-11 While we were with you, we gave you the order: “Whoever doesn’t want to work shouldn’t be allowed to eat.” We hear that some of you are not living disciplined lives. You’re not working, so you go around interfering in other people’s lives.
15. Hebrews 6:11-12 Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.
16. Proverbs 10:26 Lazy people irritate their employers, like vinegar to the teeth or smoke in the eyes.
Bible examples
17. Matthew 25:24-28 “Then the one who had received one talent came forward and said, ‘Master, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you haven’t planted and gathering where you haven’t scattered any seed. Since I was afraid, I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here, take what’s yours!’ “His master answered him, ‘You evil and lazy servant! So you knew that I harvested where I haven’t planted and gathered where I haven’t scattered any seed? Then you should’ve invested my money with the bankers. When I returned, I would’ve received my money back with interest. Then the master said, ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the ten talents.”
18. Titus 1:10-12 There are many believers, especially converts from Judaism, who are rebellious. They speak nonsense and deceive people. They must be silenced because they are ruining whole families by teaching what they shouldn’t teach. This is the shameful way they make money. Even one of their own prophets said, “Cretans are always liars, savage animals, and lazy gluttons.”
19. Proverbs 24:30-32 I walked through the fields and vineyards of a lazy, stupid person. They were full of thorn bushes and overgrown with weeds. The stone wall around them had fallen down. I looked at this, thought about it, and learned a lesson from it.
20. Judges 18:9 And they said, Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good: and are ye still? be not slothful to go, and to enter to possess the land.