Posts Tagged: Proverbs 22:13

“There’s a Lion on the Loose!”

On July 30, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

I was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder at the young age of fifty-two.  My wife’s response was, “This explains a lot!”

That may be true.  A.D.D. is a real thing and a real explanation.  However, as with anything else, A.D.D. can be used as an excuse.   When anything—even something real—is used as an excuse, it becomes unreal and evil.

So, recognizing that I am more prone than the average bear to have difficulty paying attention does not give me a free pass.  Quite the contrary!  It means that I need to spend more emotional energy seeking to focus on what I need/deeply want to do.

The same thing may be said about me that was said by one wise commentator about the lazy person and the lion in Proverbs 22:13.  “The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion outside; I will be killed in the streets!’”  Christine Roy Yoder comments on this verse,

No excuse is too absurd for the lazy.  One pictures the sluggard curled up inside (e.g., 19:15, 24; 26:14-15) and pointing outside, stammering about an imaginary lion wandering the streets (cf. 26:13).   . . .  [T]he verb räcaH  (“to kill”) is typically used for a homicide that particularly offends the community, such as the killing of an innocent citizen . . . .  The sluggard’s unprecedented use of the verb to describe an animal attack and, implicitly, to characterize himself as innocent lends further ridiculousness to the claim.  (Christine Roy Yoder, Proverbs, Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries (Nashville: Abingdon, 2009), 226.)

Whether I am struggling with A.D.D. or laziness (and I do struggle with both), or with anything else, the underlying principle is the same: No excuses allowed! Perhaps the A.D.D. and laziness are not the most serious problem anyway.  Perhaps it’s the excuses that are fatal.  The excuses are the lion, and they will devour my dreams, my time, my very life.

But how can I recognized an excuse, you ask?  One simple rule of thumb is this: If I am having to spend very much time explaining why something is right, either to myself or to someone else, it isn’t an explanation.  It’s an excuse.

So, I think I’ll declare a new holiday: No Excuse Day.  It is a floating holiday, and will be observed only on days that begin with the letter “T”: Tuesdays, Thursdays, Tomorrow, and Today.

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