Get a move on!

Ok, what is a sluggard??
The example you guys couldn't get over laughing at the most was the one in Proverbs 19:24 "The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not even bring it back to his mouth!" And it is hilarious thinking of that image, especially since some of you demonstrated it so vividly. How can it be possible for someone who is hungry, not to do something about it?!
And yet that's what we are like in some areas of our lives:

• That piece of coursework has sat on your desk for weeks now, you've been studying for it in class, you know everything you need to write for it... but somehow, you can't pick up your pen, or you find yourself chatting on msn every free minute, rather than getting yourself out of the misery of knowing you'll be stuck with a last minute mad rush hours before the deadline. (Prov 20:4)
• You've just had a massive argument with your mum over some stupid stupid tiny tiny thing. You were being dumb, but hey, you like shouting... only thing is, you could swallow your pride, open the door you just slammed, and say sorry. Only you like wallowing in self-pity and you're going to let it stew for a few days so that you can keep feeling sorry for yourself for longer. (Prov 24:30-31)
• You are that door on the hinge - your mum prods you about 50 times each morning so that you finally fall out of bed and make it into school just before the end of registration. You never have time to check if you've brought the right equipment, on the way to class you panic and wonder if you'd brushed your teeth... you were the one that invented the 'just out of bed' look. (Prov 26:14)
• Finally you have an excuse for anything you don't feel like doing. The real reason is that you'd much prefer to spend most of your life in front of the TV or chatting to friends of friends of friends of friends that you met on friendster or hi5 or facebook or whatever, but you'd like people to think otherwise. Yep, you're no sluggard when it comes to making excuses for your sluggishness! What if I get run over on the way to the shop to buy milk? What if a fork jumps out of the sink and bounces against the kitchen wall back onto the cupboard door and onto my toe when I'm washing up? Ouch, it hurts just thinking what might happen! What if I run out of socks to wear if I put the mouldy pile on my bedroom floor into the wash for the first time in my life? (Prov 22:13)

Many of you were howling with laughter and proudly declaring that you were proper sluggards in some areas of your lives. You even insisted that it was natural - but of course. It's our sinful nature that is at work inside us... again we need to turn back to Proverbs 1:7. Will we continue to sit on our backsides wasting our God-given lives, or will we get up and get moving? Will we sort ourselves out, where we clearly know we need to take action? Will we take the initiative? Or are we going to look back one day and regret that we wasted our talents, our time, our friendships, our opportunities... just because we were lazy?
Think about it carefully - NOW.