May 9, 2018May 10, 2018 jathan

The Kind of Laziness that Leads to Moral Failure

Faith

Ministers are not required to be perfect, but we are required to be “above reproach”, and that’s almost as difficult.

Paul points out to his young protégé in Timothy 3, just how high the moral bar is set for ministers.

Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach… (I Timothy 3:1-2)

In other words, ministers must be an unquestioned example of the moral standards that God set forth in His word.

This is not to say that ministers do not have feet of clay. I know I certainly do. Furthermore, as perplexed I am that God would entrust his precious treasure in these “earthen vessels”, that’s exactly what He did.

This being the case, it is not only unreasonable, but also bad theology to expect ministers to be perfect.

But a sobering article I came across recently by Ed Stetzer suggests that Christian ministers, it seems, are not coming anywhere near close enough.

In the article, Stetzer used an anecdote that really got my attention.

He says:

“When Donna and I were in California in March, we had lunch with Rick and Kay Warren after church. We talked about a Saddleback conference from 2010 where Rick, Kay, and I spoke. Since that conference, about half of the speakers have stepped down from the churches they were serving due to some personal issue.

Half—in eight years.

That’s not right, but it is real.”

Thankfully, there is forgiveness, redemption, and restoration for those who have fallen.

But given the unspeakable carnage created by moral failure, it would behoove every minister, especially in the age of the smartphone, to take every precaution possible to fortify themselves against the inevitable assault on our morality.

For those of us seeking to do so, one of the first steps we should take is to examine where we stand in relation to the law of least effort.

The Law of Least Effort

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Daniel Kahneman defines the law of least effort like this:

The law asserts that if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. In the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition of skill is driven by the balance of benefits and costs. Laziness is built deep into our nature.

Simply stated, as human beings, we are hardwired to follow the path of least resistance.

Not that this is always a bad thing.

In fact, sometimes the law of least effort has a lucrative payoff in our lives. Especially when it comes to skill acquisition.

The Upside of Laziness

Here’s how Kahneman explains it:

As you become skilled in a task, its demand for energy diminishes. Studies of the brain have shown that the pattern of activity associated with an action changes as skill increases, with fewer brain regions involved.

Talent has similar effects.

Highly intelligent individuals need less effort to solve the same problems…”

As you might be able to predict, this principle can lead to a boon of personal productivity.

Let me explain using an example from my teaching career.

During my first year of teaching English, a significant amount of my energy was dedicated to trying to learn grammar and literary concepts. After having now gone through the curriculum several times over a six-year span, however, I no longer have to stop and recall how an author might go about creating an ominous mood in a story.

It’s all there. The skills are embedded. Therefore, I can now utilize them with minimal output.

This is great because it gives me opportunity to re-allocate this freed up energy toward building new skills such as calibrated questioning, collaborative grouping techniques, and writing more valid and relevant lessons.

But this is not always what happens.

Why?

Because I’m hardwired to be lazy.

Often, instead of using my surplus energy to master a new skill, I’m tempted to waste time on the internet or some other leisure activities that doesn’t make me a better teacher.

And I’m not the only one.

Not by a long shot.

Wasting Time at Work

According to a recent Forbes article, wasting time at work is an epidemic that continues to grow at about the same rate as the proliferation of technology.

According to the article, 69% of workers admitted to wasting at least some time at work on a daily basis. In fact, it says, “Not surprisingly, personal use of technology continues to lead the charge. Twenty-four percent of workers admitted they spend at least an hour a day on personal email, texts and personal calls.”

This is not to say that technology is the only culprit of workplace inefficiency.

As you peruse the list, see if you recognize yourself in any of these time wasters.Talking on the cell phone and texting – 50%

• Gossiping – 42%
• On the Internet – 39%
• On Social media – 38%
• Taking snack breaks or smoke breaks – 27%
• Distracted by noisy co-workers – 24%
• In meetings – 23%
• On email – 23%
• Distracted by co-worker drop byes – 23%
• Distracted by co-worker calls on speaker phone – 10%

Just for fun, here are few of the non-conventional time-wasting activities reported.

• A married employee was looking at a dating website and then denied it while it was still up on his computer screen
• An employee was caring for her pet bird that she smuggled into work
• An employee was shaving her legs in the women’s restroom
• An employee was laying under boxes to scare people
• Employees were having a wrestling match
• A sleeping employee claimed he was praying (creative!)
• An employee was changing clothes in a cubicle
• An employee was printing off a book from the Internet
• An employee was warming her bare feet under the bathroom hand dryer

You might be saying, it’s obvious that the law of least effort is a threat to my personal productivity, but what does it have to do with my ability to live a life of moral fidelity.

To answer that, we need to look no further than the role that it played in perhaps the most infamous moral failing in the bible.

King David’s Options

King David was a “man after God’s own heart”, yet he failed not only himself, his family, and a devoted soldier when he had an affair with Bathsheba, but he also let down the same God whom he supposedly loved with all of his heart.

Eventually David sought and found forgiveness in God, but the price he and his family paid for his sexual liaison with another man’s wife was way too high. I can’t imagine David having a deeper regret than his affair with Bathsheba and the subsequent cover up.

What would lure a man, so in love with God, to betray his own godly principles to such an unimaginable degree?

The law of least effort had something to do with it.

2 Kings 11:1 proves this.

It says:

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

David was not supposed to stay at home and chill in the palace during the spring. He was supposed to lead his troops out into war, as he had done many, many times before.

So why did he do take the spring off?

Because he COULD.

• At this point in his career, David was established enough as a leader that he no longer felt compelled to earn the respect of his people through his exploits on the battlefield.
• After years of building it up, his army was competent enough to function without him personally overseeing it.
• Because Joab was a strong enough leader, David could relax and know that Israel would return victorious without ever having to leave the comfort of his own palace.

These type of options create a classic set up for the law of least effort to put on its full court press.

If David’s goal as a ruler was to maintain a firm control of his kingdom, he now found himself in the enviable position of having several ways to achieve this goal.

And true to the law of least effort, tragically, he chose the one with the least demanding course of action.

He stayed home and relaxed, instead of going out and doing his job.

It cost him dearly.

The Problem with Having Options

The parallel for modern Christian ministers is this:

• if we preach long enough, we can reach our goal of preaching effectively without really applying ourselves in prayer, fasting, and study.
• If we lead a church long enough, we are able to achieve our goal of moving the organization forward without bathing our decision making, vision casting, and communication in prayer, fasting, and study.
• If we stay at a local church long enough we can achieve our goal of buy-in from our flock by relying more on our relational equity and charisma than we do on being led of Spirit.

In other words, if we’re in the ministry long enough, or if we are gifted enough, we will eventually find ourselves in the enviable, yet dangerous position of having several different ways of achieving our ministry goals.

And when this happens, you can bet that our human nature will lobby like crazy in favor of the option that requires of us the least demanding course of action.

And when it comes to ministry, that’s an awfully dangerous to take.

The reason being that what the law of least effort is really persuading us to do is let our guard down.

And that never ends well in the time of battle.

The Line Between Recovery and Apathy

Am I saying that we should keep the pedal to the metal nonstop in ministry.  Noway.

A jam-packed ministry schedule with no built-in time for recovery time will lead to burnout and cause us to be equally as vulnerable as apathy.

I speak from experience.

Instead, we must seek some in-between place.

When doing so, I believe the words of apostle Peter are helpful.

In 1 Peter 5:8 he says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” (KJV)

And both sobriety and vigilance are impossible to achieve when we’re either tired or lazy.

Finish Well

I’ve been privileged to know many ministers who finished their ministry race well. A common thread uniting these men and women of God was that they seemed to be able to find that right amount of rest  and recovery that allowed them to stay fresh and vibrant throughout the decades.

It seems that most of them viewed rest and recovery not as a time to overindulge in leisure, but as a time to refresh themselves for reentering the fray when God would sound the horn in the springtime.

Here’s to you and I finding a way to do just that.

Both for our sakes and those whom we lead.

What about you?

Has the law of least effort impacted your life?

How do you overcome it? I would love to hear your thoughts in the “comments” section below.