Posts Tagged: inattentiveness

“A Good Kind of Laziness”

On December 8, 2020 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

I am not a mind-reader, but I know what some of you are thinking. If you were paying attention to the title of this post, you’re thinking, “What!?! Laziness isn’t ever a good thing!”

Well, generally I would say “Amen” to that. However, it occurred to me this morning that there is laziness, and then, there is laziness. Let me explain.

We get Kroger fuel points, so when we get gas, I try to take all the gas cans I gather, so that we can get as much bang for our buck, and as much gas for our buck. My wife’s car was almost out of gas, so I went out late last night to put gas in her car out of one of our money-saving gas cans. It was only about 8:00 p.m., but that is late for me. It was cold, the gas cans are heavy, and the joint pain in my hands told me that I needed to power through the pain and the cold and the weight and the lateness of the hour, and just get this done.

There was a catch: I forgot to make sure that the gas cap on the five-gallon can was off. Do you have any idea how hard it is to pour gas out of a can when you haven’t taken off the cap? Short story long, I ended up spilling some gas on my old jeans. All this was the result of hurry and bad laziness.

My wife hates the smell of gas. I’m not all that fond of it myself. So, in spite of my desire to go to bed, I decided to do a load of laundry. But I hated just doing my gas-soaked pants, so I decided to throw in some wash cloths and towels and other hot water things.

You already see where this is going, don’t you? Yep! Bad laziness strikes again! Last night, after the hot-water things had been washed, I threw them in the dryer, turned it on and went to bed.

This morning, I got up and went downstairs to take the dog outside. I decided to be a good scout and fold the nice dry, clean clothes. “My wife will appreciate that,” I told myself. My self-congratulations were exceedingly premature. The clothes were dry alright. It was the clean thing that didn’t turn out well. As I folded the clothes, I discovered that they all smelled like gasoline.

So, I need to do them again as soon as my sweetheart gets up, if not before.

As I put the “clean” clothes back in the washer, I was invited by God’s Holy Spirit to think about what I had done and why. Was it that I like to conserve water and laundry detergent? Well yes, that may have factored in a little. But the bottom line was this: I was inattentive and lazy. The inattentiveness and laziness with the gas can cap had cascaded into laziness doing the laundry.

And then this thought occurred: If I had been productively lazy, none of this would have happened. Good laziness means slowing down, paying attention, and doing things right the first time. That is the best way to be lazy. And it’s a lot less work that my usual form of laziness.

Make it a good lazy day!

, ,
Follow on Feedly