Entropy

The sin of sloth is essentially the sin of neglect. I don’t think of sloth as primarily about laziness, as much as skewed priorities. Sloth shows up when I give myself to the less important things and allow the more important ones to slide. God designed the universe in such a way that the consequences of neglecting important things are graciously delayed. I think that is so that we have a chance to catch up and make it right.

The consequences of neglect are guaranteed nevertheless. The Law of Entropy kicks in whenever we leave the important things to themselves. Any system left to itself begins to deteriorate. Left untended our bodies, our minds, our marriages, our bank accounts, and our garages will eventually fall apart. Clutter will expand to fill the space available. Activities (valuable or not) will expand to fill our calendars. The garden will fill with weeds.

The book of Proverbs calls attention to the behavior of a character called “the sluggard,” who is sloth personified. The sluggard has his priorities so inverted that comfort and pleasure always trump discipline, work, or effort. One of the proverbial descriptions of the sluggard practically defines sloth for me:

I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest--and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man. (Proverbs 24:30-34)

I was reminded of this passage when I visited the farm last weekend. September 2007- May 2008 had been the driest six-month period on record in Wilson County – a mere half dozen inches of rain in half a year. The drought occurred during the very period when we had our first wheat crop in the ground. When I was there in June I mowed the three acres or so around the house with the old Murray lawn tractor, but there was not much growth to mow.

I returned in July, and attempted to mow again, but the Murray belched a cloud of white smoke and gave up the ghost. I decided against renting a mower and doing the job, consoling myself that the drought would keep the growth down for another month.

More than three inches of rain mercifully fell around Floresville over the next six weeks. And the powerful fecundity woven into the DNA of an army of weeds, grasses, and wildflowers responded in obedience to an ancient commandment. When we arrived last weekend, we stood and stared at the attempted insurrection all of nature had orchestrated in a little more than a month. I had forgotten just how wild the place really is. The area we’d worked so hard to clear last year was on the verge of a complete reoccupation by opposition forces. Renting a lawn mower to deal with this would have been futile. Grasses, ragweed, and paper leaf mulberry were growing as high as my chest.

We drove into San Antonio, pausing at the Texas Pride BBQ in Adkins for lunch. (We learned about this place on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives program.) I rented an Outback Billy Goat, a walk-behind brush cutter, to attempt to stem the tide of the revolution. I spent three hours on Friday and another three on Saturday walking through enemy territory with this weapon of grass destruction. The Billy Goat can cut through small trees of 3” diameter and leave them lying on the ground. It leaves a pretty rough cut on the grass, but it did the job. Melinda set about restoring a flowerbed area around the oak tree and the house in the back yard, which she had attempted to establish in July as well. After two days of labor, we could sit in the swing out back and enjoy the view.

On Saturday afternoon I loaded the broken lawn tractor into Willie and hauled it back to Houston for repair. As soon as Murray is feeling better, he and Willie and I will return to tend the property again.

(We stopped at my son’s house to pick up their two dogs for a few days while he and his family were out of town. The Creeches drove through Houston on Saturday night looking like the Clampitts, with three people and two dogs in the pickup, hauling a big lawn tractor in the bed.)

I thought about sloth as I walked behind the Billy Goat for hours. Neglect of important things, even when not the product of laziness, nevertheless has its consequences. Being too busy, not too lazy, is not a better reason. Lawns and fields and children and spouses and bodies and minds and spirit do not care what the cause of the neglect is. They respond the same way. They grow the stuff you do not want. But grace remains. Permanent effects are usually not immediate. It may take extra effort, but the opportunity remains open for a while to make things right. Left untended, however, the weeds will eventually win. That’s why the sin of sloth is considered one of the seven deadly ones, I suppose.