Proverbs 15:19

Proverbs 15:19 "The way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous is made plain."

Have you ever noticed that five different people can look at the same thing and see five different things?  One person sees challenges while another person looking at the same set of circumstances sees opportunities.  One person sees something beautiful, another person sees something scary while yet another person sees something mysterious.  This unique human phenomenon can mainly be explained by the diversity with which God made our race.  Personality, gender, age, experience and culture all shape our perspective.  Men see things differently than women.  Adults see things differently than children.  The elderly see things differently than the youth.  Married souls see things differently than single souls.  Americans see things differently than Asians and Europeans see things differently than Africans.  Optimists see things differently than pessimists.  Most of these natural differences are generally out of our control.  That being said, there is one thing that is very much within our control that does shape our perspective: our spiritual differences.

With the aid of strong imagery, this proverb shows us the profound impact our spiritual differences have on our outlook and viewpoint.  The two parties of the proverb are vastly different but defined by their spiritual condition.  Age, gender, experience, culture or social status matter not to this proverb.  It's a matter of morality and specifically, whether a person is slothful or righteous.  It must be noted then that a person can't be righteous and slothful at the same time.  Slothfulness is an unrighteous characteristic.  Being lazy is being immoral.  When a person is slothful, what he sees "on the way" or “in the way” is vastly different than what a person sees when he is righteous.  Slothfulness in spirit produces challenges in view.  More specifically, laziness in spirit produces impossible challenges in view.  When we allow laziness in our lives, we allow reality to be distorted and success to be stolen.  According to the wise Solomon, what a slothful person sees before him is "AS" a hedge of thorns.  In modern terms, a lazy man sees a wall of barbed wire in front of him.  Based on his unique perspective, there's nothing a lazy man can do because the hedge is too tall and too sharp to overcome.

Slothfulness doesn't just slow our hands and feet - it distorts our eyes.  Virtue and vice have as much of an impact on our perspective as age, experience, gender and culture.  Once we allow slothfulness into our lives, we unknowingly convert a little weed into a hedge of thorns.  Once we entertain laziness, we unknowingly see a little prickly plant as a towering wall of deadly thorns.  Laziness magnifies every obstacle and challenge.  It convinces us that normal hurdles are insurmountably.  It makes the simplest of inconveniences seem overwhelming.  Slothfulness in the soul puts a magnifying glass for problems in the eye.  It makes a simple phone call seem hard.  It makes a single appointment appear difficult.  It makes a little research look exhausting.  Slothfulness makes work look impossible and routine tasks appear incredibly difficult.  

On the contrary, righteousness in the soul clears up cloudiness in the eye.  What a righteous man sees before him is vastly different than what a slothful man sees.  While the lazy man sees an insurmountable wall in front of him, a righteous man sees nothing he can't overcome.  To the righteous, his way is "MADE plain,” or flat.  The contrast between the two perspectives is a matter of height, or more specifically, that which can or can't be overcome.  While slothfulness convinces a person he can't go on, righteousness does the opposite and convinces a person there's no reason not to go on.  Vice intentionally skews our perspective in order to prevent progress and spiritual success.  On the other hand, virtue intentionally clarifies our perspective in order to produce progress and spiritual success.  Righteousness minimizes challenges.  Righteousness shortens hurdles and lowers concerns.  Whereas slothfulness intentionally makes a problem seem bigger than the person, righteousness gloriously makes all problems seem smaller than the person because righteousness is the direct result of fearing God.  Where there is a fear of God, there is no fear of obstacle, challenge or problem.  To entertain righteousness, a healthy perspective of God must be present and when we perceive the power of God, what problem seems to too tall or too sharp to overcome?  Righteousness puts problems in perspective.  Righteousness "makes" the future look plain, or without insurmountable hedges and challenges.

If you find yourself unmotivated and unproductive, it may have a lot less to do with your personality, age or even health.  It may have everything to do with the fact that you've allowed a spirit of slothfulness into your heart.  If you see everything in life as a hedge of thorns, make righteousness your goal and in time, you'll realize that those supposed hedges of thorns are merely little prickly weeds that you can step on or step around with good shoes.  This proverb cautions us to blame our perspective on uncontrollable aspects of our lives and genes.  What we see is largely determined by what we choose to spiritually be.  What is IN us determines what we see BEFORE us.