Little White Lies and the Seven Deadly Sins
A Faith-Fun Look at Daily Life
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SLOTH
My daughter was preparing to turn out for track--her first foray into competitive sports. The only problem is that, unlike the adults in our family, she's not competitive. "All my friends are turning out for track, Mom. Besides, as long as I stick with it, I'm in. It's 'no-cut' track."
Her attitude about track was admirable, and she was ready...right up until the night before track started. Needing some back-up, I took her to my parents' house; I figured Poppa and Grandma, who have seen their four children through every sport in the book, would have good insight.
And boy, was I right. Mary explained that she didn't need to be the best runner on the team. She just didn't want to embarrass herself. My dad sat across from Mary, and he said this: "Mary Jo, picture you with a friend, out in the woods. All of a sudden, a mean and hungry bear comes on the scene, and he has you and your friend in his sites as the best next snack. The trick is knowing this: You don't have to run faster than the bear.
"You only have to run faster than your friend."
I'm not really sure that this is an example of appropriate Christian behavior, but it got Mary more comfortable, and she made it through the first track meet just fine.
Then kids started to drop off the team.
Mary had been placed on the fourth relay squad on her team (which made sense, since she was neither experienced nor competitive). But a few days before the next meet, one of the girls on the first relay squad was unable to run in the meet. Since one of Mary's friends was on that first squad, the friend asked the coach if Mary could be the sub for that one meet.
Curiously, the coach said, "Sure."
I think I was more nervous the day of the meet than Mary was. Unfortunately, the meet was some distance away, and I was unable to drive to the event. So I had to wait until she got home before she could give the play-by-play.
She walked into the house, sat down in the living room where the rest of us were waiting, and she stated emphatically, "Well, we were disqualified."
Oh, no.
"Don't worry, Mom, it wasn't because of me. I ran second, and it went fine. I passed the baton to the girl that ran third, and she did fine. But when the baton was passed from the third to the fourth runner, they dropped the baton, so we got DQ'd."
I was so relieved.
"Oh, and one more thing," Mary calmly stated. "It was so weird being on the first relay squad. I had to run so much faster than when I'm on the fourth squad. Well, time for a snack. Later."
And off she went.
Of all the things that have surprised me about this season's track experience, it was that last statement that I've come back to time and time again. "I had to run so much faster than when I'm on the fourth squad."
What a great example of sticking with the crowd. Mary wasn't running on a particular squad because of her speed; she made her speed comparable to the squad she was on. Had she never been placed as a sub on the first squad, nobody would have ever known that she could run faster.
The sin of sloth enters when you stick with status quo. When you do what's expected and nothing more.
It never dawned on Mary to try to run her fastest when she was on the fourth relay squad. That may be the case for you, too; whether it's at work, at home, in your marriage, in your friendships, in your finances, in your gardening, in all things, perhaps you're so used to just hanging with the crowd that you have forgotten to step it up, to do your best, to "run in such a way as to get the prize" (1 Corinthians 9:24).
I'm not sure if Mary will try out for track in the future, but I am sure that her experience was a lesson for her...and me.
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About the Book
You would think we’d grow tired of rubber-necking toward the scene of how others messed up. But whenever there’s a fall from grace or someone lets the monster within come out, we join the throng to see what’s going on. From a distance, of course. There’s no sense in getting too close. Sin is nothing new. The Seven Deadly Sins are nothing new, either. They’ve been around for centuries. They’ve been renamed, categorized, and prioritized. But still they live on. For some reason, these sins—Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, and Sloth—are considered to be the big guys. We twenty-first century Americans have an increasingly serious problem with the seven deadlies: we think either they’re way out of reach, or way too dated; they are so bad that we would never succumb to them, or too obsolete to spend any time worrying about. Meanwhile, it’s okay to tell the little white lie, while staying well out of the reach of the Deadlies. Except that it’s not. Sin is sin. It creeps into our daily lives almost before we realize it. Almost. And no matter how we slice it, sin of any size does one thing: it separates us from a relationship with God. So get ready to dive into these deadly sins and daily life. You just might be surprised to find yourself somewhere in these pages.
About the Author
Laurie Jackson is the Senior Director of Compass Care at Virginia Mason Memorial Hospital in Yakima, Washington. Compass Care is a service line that focuses on advancing illness and end-of-life care. She is also an ordained Presbyterian minister. After seminary, Laurie served full-time in churches from east coast to west coast before making the leap into healthcare. Her vision is to remove the fear of end of life throughout her community. In her work as a leader in hospice and palliative care, she has focused on advance care planning, primarily teaching on The Five Wishes (an advance directive that is currently legal in 42 states plus Washington, D.C.). She believes that we Christians have a unique opportunity to live our best lives because we have a peace that passes understanding in this world.