The Terrain of Slothfulness vs Rest

  This is Part 3 of the series of the Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins. To reiterate for those who missed the earlier posts (do read), this series is developing the land of a metaphorical "game" known as "Catharsis Hall". Catharsis Hall is an interactive study that helps us deal with the problems gripping us before those problems wreck havoc on us. The key concept is to take the abstract concept and provide a metaphor for it. And by addressing the issues in the metaphor, we are actually dealing with the real problem at the same time. Catharsis Hall is just a skeleton right now and as you engage the setting of the terrain, you learn more about yourself and what you are dealing with. And the way this interactive study works is simple. Plant yourself in the setting. It could be with a "role-playing" character that describes you. Take a look around you. What is there? Why is it there? Every object is a metaphor. And if a villain is there (which there are) how will you deal with it? In this series, I describe a setting and what happens to that setting when one of the Deadly Sins rules it, or what happens when God is the ruler over it. In Part 1, I addressed Pride vs Humility. In Part 2, I addressed Lust vs Intimacy. And here I will address Slothfulness vs Rest. First, I must address where this takes place. Because you can have two fight against each other without a battlefield for them to fight on.

  This part talks about energy. How do you use it? Where is it directed to? What is using it? Newton's First Law comes into play here. An object in motion will tend to keep in motion, and an object at rest will tend to keep at rest until an outside force acts upon it. And when you look at it, we are like this as well. If we have an active lifestyle (I am not merely referencing physically. I am referencing simply being out there and doing something.), we prefer to stay in action. But if we get lazy and don't want to do anything, it takes a lot of effort to get going. But the comparison here is not just being lazy vs working, it is being lazy verses getting proper rest. When we live an active lifestyle, we make an active choice to go to bed so that we can restore our batteries to be active again tomorrow. When we take our Sabbath Day off work, we make an active choice to take a break so we can charge up for the next activity. But laziness is not "getting rest". Being a sloth, being lazy, is being unwilling to get up to get something done. Rest is intentional to be able to work later. Laziness has no intention to work anyway, or do the absolute minimal job possible.

  So how would these two square off? Energy is well described with the water of a river. Water is the source of life of the land and moving water acts as a purifier. But stagnant water gets nasty very quickly. Water can be still in a lake but it will need to have some form of circulation underneath to stay fresh. So in this terrain, we have a river splitting up into a delta to feed a lush wetland. But in this delta are a series of sluice gates that store up water resources and can turn a small creek upriver into a mighty river downstream. And downstream, the delta joins back together to form a river that feeds many others. Before this happens, the water is diverted to small channels that will slow it down, turn water wheels, but keep the river refreshed. These channels will help purify the water and sift out the hard minerals or other things that have been thrown into the river so when it goes down stream, it is fresh and more pure. The sluice gates also play a role in this process.

  However, all this would be if God is the ruler of the land (which a metaphor for your body). What happens to this land if slothfulness takes over? If our enemy takes over our land, the enemy will take control of the channels and sluice gates. They will break and smash some of the gates, and plants boulders or dams to block up the river's flow. If the flow of the river is impeded, it will cease flowing and become stagnant. And that will turn the lush wetland into a nasty, stinky, dead, bog. The water in a bog easily carries parasites, algae, and the dreaded mosquito. It rots the plant life and animals caught in the muck will die. But it gets worse. When the enemy takes over, and slothfulness rules, what little energies are left will be diverted to feed any other area controlled by said enemy. Slothfulness will easily feed gluttony, envy, wrath, and others. And with our river diverted to feed those dark tendencies, any water that makes it to the river's original course is little more than a trickle.

  So how do we deal with this? First, it will take time and energy, something that slothfulness will seek to retain control over. We must first drive out the inhabitants of slothfulness, but driving out the mindset of slothfulness only does part of the job. If we don't transform the land back into a wet-land, we won't get out the bog. Remember what turned the wetland into a bog? Dams and broken down/abused sluice gates. To get energy flowing again, we may need to break some dams in our life. What is impeding our energy flows? What keeps us on the couch? Paint that idea, that concept, that mindset, as a metaphor in the shape of a dam or a boulder blocking the river's flow. Then blow it up. The only way to remove stagnant water from this bog is to replace it with fresh water and keep the river flowing. Fix the sluice gates. Remove any objects from impeding water flow.

  This picture is not complete yet. I have ideas on what these sluice gates actually are supposed to represent but I'm not settled on them yet. And there may be many other things this wetland or bog may carry that are related to the issue of whether we are being rules by Slothfulness or by Godly Work and Rest. I expect to do Part 4 in the next few days. Part 4 will cover the issues of Wrath vs Severe Mercy. I will be addressing revenge, bitterness, and ungodly anger, vs doing something harsh knowing that the action will save the person in the end. It's going to be a good one.