Imagine with me that your English teacher has been telling you for weeks that you needed to have your research paper done by a certain date. You fall into the temptation of putting this paper off for other things. Every time you think of that paper, as the time keeps getting closer and closer to the due date, your heart just sinks. You really do not want to do that paper. Reality, however, keeps telling you that the due date will come very quickly. Finally, the night before the paper is due comes and you lay there in your bed. There is not a word that is typed out on your paper. You think of any excuses you can to get out of this paper. Maybe you could call in sick? No, that would be too obvious to the other students and to the teacher. Maybe the old "dog ate my homework" trick...no, that one is overused. You could just tell the teacher that the library was closed for reorganization, but then there is the issue of the internet.
Finally, as you begin to slip from an awake state to a light slumber state, you figure out the perfect plan!! A lion!! You will not show up for the due date because there was a lion in the street and there was no way to get to school because the lion would eat you!!
How utterly absurd that would be! In all my years of teaching, I have never heard that excuse!! But then I read Proverbs 22:13 and I found this verse:
The slothful man saith, there is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.
Solomon warns us about becoming lazy. He would use an absolutely absurd illustration of a slothful person using the excuse of the lion in the streets to show us how crazy and absurd our excuses get when we try to defend our own laziness. The lion in this verse represents any excuse you give to excuse your laziness. We can get pretty good at justifying our own laziness.
Colossians 3:23 tells us that whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.
Have you found yourself making excuses for your laziness? What in your life have you been slothful at? Replace those "lion excuses" with hard work, knowing that you will please those around you, but more importantly you are pleasing the Lord. He is the focal point of our hard work.
Finish this school year strong! We are praying for you and rooting for you!