Articles
Lion At the Door
“The lazy man says, ‘There is a lion in the road!’” (Prov. 26:13)
The lazy man is reduced to such pitiful excuses that, contrary to all reason and experience, there is a lion in the way. “There is a lion in the road!” He might be killed in the very streets of the city if he goes to work. A lazy person always has an excuse about why we can't do something to change themself for the better.
Further, “As the door hinges, so does the lazy man on his bed” (Prov. 26:14). He just keeps rolling over and over. The alarm goes off and off and off. He keeps hitting the snooze button. He just won’t get out of bed but keeps turning over and over.
Then, “The lazy man buries his hand in his bosom; it wearies him to bring it back out” (Prov. 26:15). He is so lazy he can’t even get his hand to his mouth. Poor thing. It is just too much for himself to feed himself. After all, there is a lion in the way and he may eat me. So feed me!
Therefore, “The lazy man is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer sensibly” (Prov. 26:16). He knows it all. Blind to his own laziness and conceit, he thinks himself wiser than seven men who have demonstrated better judgment.
He thinks his excuses are wise. He thinks he has life figured out. Ask him, he will tell you. All the while he makes excuse after excuse as to why he will not follow through and keep his word.
Have you ever met a person like this? Always promising but there is always an excuse about delivering those promises. Maybe once or twice we give the person the benefit of the doubt. But when the person repeatedly makes excuse after excuse, we stop listening and stop asking. We stop trusting their word. There is always a lion in the way. The lazy man hates everything that requires effort. Not only that, the lazy person, who won’t even feed himself, begins to tell you how to live your life.
Most see through his excuses. He doesn’t. Even his fellow man, to whom he says, “There is a lion in the way” sees through the excuse, but he doesn’t see his own.
Consider the husband who promises but always has an excuse and never follows through. He will tell others loud and sure that he loves his family, but he does not provide. He won’t even lift his hand to feed himself. Others serve him. He is pathetic! Consider the person who always has an excuse why they failed morally. A child sees a lion in the way and will not do their homework. Furthermore, what about a wife who always sees a lion and fails to love her children and her husband? How about the person who is slave to the bottle? Oh, the person intends to quit. The person is sure he can quit. But there is always a lion in the way. As the door turns on its hinges, so he keeps rolling over and over in his excuses.
Let’s be honest with ourselves. There is no lion in the way. We only say that because we don’t want to do what we must do. Further, in saying that we're avoiding what we don't want to do. No lion is going to stop us from what we want to do.
No one is immune to the lion in the way. It requires diligence all the time to make sure the lion stays out of our way.
Rickie Jenkins
