Common Realm Dragon Slayer

"The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing..." Prov 13:4

"Sluggards do not plow in season; so at harvest time they look but find nothing." Prov 20:4

"The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work." Prov 21:5

"How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?" Prov 6:9


Laziness is sinful.

Laziness is an affront to God.

To refuse to work is to refuse to obey God.

So of course, our natural inclination is to be lazy. And when you're lazy, what reaction do you have when your boss asks you to do something? What emotions fill you?

Fear.

When you don't want to work, you squirm at the thought of working. It frightens you to think someone might force you to work because it makes you think that you'll have to let go of your laziness, your sloth.

Laziness becomes an addiction, just like any other drug or any other sin. It takes over your life and becomes your god. You become like a child with a security blanket, who panics when they are not clutching it. The idea of letting go of your sin produces fear. That is the measure of the strength of your desire.

You can see people whose desires aren't being fulfilled and the panic that results on HGTV, the Home & Garden channel. My wife and I like to watch shows where their house is getting renovated, and there's a certain budget. You can see the obvious fear response they have when the inevitable news of some structural problem needing to be fixed means that they're not going to get something they want.

At first glance, it looks like anger and outrage, but it's just fear. "It has always been my dream to have a big kitchen, and you're telling me I can't have it???!!!" It's crazy how shameless they are about lashing out to a stranger who's helping them in front of millions of people who will eventually watch the show. But they don't care about that anymore.

All they care about is getting what they want, because they're just as sure as sure can be that they deserve it. And as I've written elsewhere, they need to get what they think they deserve because this is how they justify their very lives.

Thank you, God, for the hope of heaven, so that I don't need to justify my existence with a big house, a big SUV, or whatever else my sinful heart has convinced me I deserve simply for being so "great". The deceitfulness of sin knows no bounds.

For those who are lazy, for sluggards, they don't think they deserve to work. They deserve to be waited on. They deserve a paycheck because they're awesome, not because they've earned it by DOING things. They think they deserve it for who they ARE, not for what they DO.

Consider the poor man's resentment of rich CEOs, for example. What does a poor man think a CEO does all day? He thinks he puts his feet up, smokes cuban cigars, practices his putting on his putting green, has an affair with his super hot secretary, buys his wife fur coats so she won't be mad about it, and basically just "tells people what to do all day". They don't work, they just take whatever they want. They haven't earned this position either, they just "got lucky" and were perhaps born into wealth.

But anyone with half a brain knows this job doesn't actually exist. Men who become CEOs that get paid millions of dollars a year don't get there through luck, but through sacrificing everything for it, by being obsessed with work. This is something that lazy people can't possibly understand. They think they deserve that life, and the reason they don't have it is because they got unlucky or someone is oppressing them.

And so, they respond with anger, bitterness and resentment. But the root of it is fear. And the panic can be seen when a lazy person is tasked with something at work. And this is true of all of us by nature.

When people get overwhelmed at work, why do they get overwhelmed? It's because they feel like they'll NEVER get done with all the work, and they panic. They panic because they're afraid that there will always be work for them to do. They want to rest. They don't want to just keep working. A little folding of the hands. A little slumber. Just...a...quick...*yawn...nap...

When people feel overwhelmed, they're afraid. It's a mountain of work that causes them to react that way. That's not, of course, everything that can be said about it. Sometimes there's unjust treatment at the hands of bosses that overwork their people, but that's a separate issue.

I know about the fear of overwhelmed people, because I work in a place where everyone is hopelessly overtasked, and thus they regularly show signs of feeling overwhelmed. And one of the things I love most about my job is sweeping into a situation like that and in a few minutes, making everything manageable and streamlined and providing direction and clarification and watching those feelings of fear wash away. I live that out several times a day.

And it makes me feel like a knight in shining armor, constantly rescuing damsels - or less capable knights - in distress.

It is as if they are a group of frightened villagers, cowering in fear on the ground in the fetal position before a vicious dragon who snaps and bites at them, and they're curled up in a ball, hoping he'll just go away.

But then along comes a hero, and he is not cowering in fear. It is not that he is not afraid - he is, for it is his nature too to view mountains of unending, overwhelming work as a vicious dragon - but he chooses to stare down his fears rather than hide from them. And refusing to be mastered by his fear, refusing to give in to it, his fear doesn't control him, and so his judgment is not as clouded as those who are curled on the ground cowering. And so he is able to see that the dragon is not as vicious as he at first appeared, and that he has a weakness that can be exploited. And grasping the sword of truth in his hand, protected by wisdom like armor, he strikes at the beast, who for the first time itself is cowed, yelping in pain, and falling down before the hero's feet like a tame little lap dog, yearning for its masters affection.

And slowly the cowering villagers realize that the beast has departed, and they look around - and that's when they see him. A hero, clothed in wisdom, a gleaming truth in his hand, crowned with understanding, radiating the glory of God in whose likeness he now clearly shines. And for what is perhaps the first time in their lives they understand what it is to be a man. Christ shines through the hero, and he is glorious indeed.

And the people arise and applaud the hero, and he leads them. One to feed their new pet, one to clothe it, one to build its bed, another to get water for it. Suddenly the dragon has become the family pet, and harmony results.

Here is the mission of the man of God in the work place.

We who have walked away from the ministry may have thought of ourselves in such terms, had we dared to imagine it, though we would never admit it to anyone. But you know, you can still be that man made in the image of God. You can still look like God to a dying world. You can still radiate the glory of Christ, you can still make him attractive.

And when they ask you the source of your courage, you can tell them that Christ died for you, and you have a hope in heaven, and therefore you can face your fears and work hard to his glory, crowned with his wisdom, his truth your weapon against the forces of darkness and chaos.

And they can still marvel at Christ in you, even if you aren't in the pulpit.

For you see, there are two realms. There is the common realm and the redemptive realm.

The redemptive realm is the church. This is where Christ is redeeming his people. The church must be governed according to mercy and grace. The moment someone repents, they are forgiven. Even excommunication's purpose is to shame sinners into repenting.

But the common realm is different. It is governed according to justice. Misbehavior has consequences. If you're lazy and unproductive, you get fired. The workplace is not a charity. It's not a place for endless mercy. Show mercy if you want, but always be just. Don't play favorites. Fire those who don't meet the standard. Fire those who produce more excuses than widgets.

I recently wrote of a disappointing new hire where I work. If we're talking about the church, she can be forgiven endlessly. And if she's out of work, I'm happy to give money to the deacons to provide for her.

But that's the redemptive realm. I don't work in the redemptive realm - NOT ANYMORE. Now I work in the common realm. Justice says that if you're drawing a paycheck, it must be earned. Why should a business be forced into being a charity? The business is not the church.

You can slay monsters in the common realm to the glory of God too. The monsters are just somewhat different. You're not helping people manage their sin problems, or helping them to understand the Scriptures. Instead, you're helping them to manage their workload, to face their fears of working hard, to help them work smarter not harder, and to crush the forces of chaos wherever they rear their ugly heads.

You can glorify God every bit as much in one realm as in the other. God rules over both. Service to God in the one realm is not inherently greater than service in the other. Why?

Because you inhabit BOTH. In YOU, the two realms come together.

You have one foot in this world, and one foot in the age to come. You have one foot in this present age of darkness and one foot in the eschaton of glory.

And when you shine with the glory of God, having vanquished the forces of chaos and fear and deception with the light of truth, it is the light of the glory of the age to come and of the risen Christ that shines forth through you.

And it doesn't matter if you do that in the pulpit or from behind a computer screen or in a meeting. Either way you bring a little bit of the light of the glory of God into this present darkness, and with this God is well pleased.

Moses had to wear a veil, but you don't.

You have left the pulpit - but God has released you to shine your light elsewhere. Fine - you don't shine your light in that way anymore. There are other ways to be a lightbringer. There are other ways to reflect his glory. And that is your true purpose, man of God.

God never promised you that you could be a minister. But he DID promise that if you confess him before men - whether by word or whether by deed is of no consequence - he will confess you before his Father.

So confess him in the common realm by not shrinking back in fear from hard work, knowing that you don't deserve anything from the Lord but eternal damnation and destruction, and that anything else has been earned by Christ, who alone and exclusively makes you worthy of taking your next breath.

For the common grace that infuses the common realm also springs from the cross for the sake of the elect of whom you are part.

Go - be a hero, be a common realm dragon slayer to the glory of God.