Notes on Wisdom, Sloth, and Restful Zeal
Today’s main session has stayed with me because I think it’s an area of life many of us grapple with. We were in Proverbs again, listening to Dan Wu, and I found myself jotting down ideas that felt uncomfortably close to home — especially around sloth, rest, and what wise living actually looks like in real life.
He offered a set of questions and they feel like a helpful lens for reading any proverb:
How does this show me the blessing of living God’s wisdom in his world?
How does it show me where I fall short of that blessing?
How does it show me my need for Jesus as the fulfilment of God’s saving wisdom?
How does it reshape my life into the image of Jesus, God’s wisdom in the world?
One thing Dan kept emphasising was that Proverbs isn’t all the same kind of writing. Some wisdom unfolds slowly across whole chapters; other times it’s packed into a single, strange, confronting verse.
Like Proverbs 19:24.
“The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth.”
At first, it’s almost comical. Then frustrating. Then, if we sit with it long enough, unsettling or even inducing of anger.
Dan encouraged us not to rush past verses like this but to stay with them — to imagine the character from different angles, to picture the situation, and to let the proverb do its work on us before God. Sometimes wisdom forms us by lingering, not by moving quickly to application.
What became clear is that sloth isn’t just about being lazy. Dan was careful to distinguish the two. Laziness can be about behaviour; sloth is deeper. Sloth is spiritual apathy — a disengagement of the heart that leaves us unable or unwilling to give ourselves to what we were made for.
He quoted John Piper: “God created us to live with a single passion: to display his excellence.” Sloth is dangerous because it quietly denies that purpose. It interrupts the rhythm Proverbs keeps pointing to — receiving from God, reflecting his goodness, and returning ourselves in love and obedience.
There was a moment where Dan spoke about the Western context in particular — how privilege can make sloth feel normal. Comfort dulls urgency. Ease makes obedience negotiable. It made sense why gospel work often feels harder here: not because people are hostile, but because hearts are too comfortable and feel no need or desire of the Saviour.
But then he named something that felt important to wrestle with: the sluggard isn’t just out there. It’s me.
How often do I see an opportunity to serve God — something that would stretch me, cost me, or disrupt my comfort — and quietly think, too hard or too inconvenient?
Dan was also careful to say that sloth is not the same as rest. This wasn’t a talk designed to load people with guilt. Wisdom means knowing your season. There are times when life is genuinely complex, exhausting, or heavy, and the limits we experience are real.
But there’s a difference between “this season is hard” and “I just can’t be bothered.”
Sloth, he said, often sits close to idolatry. Proverbs links it with gluttony and greed — not because enjoyment is wrong, but because desire becomes disordered. Philippians 3:19 names people whose god is their appetite. And as Tim Keller often says, an idol is anything that whispers, “If I just have that, then I’ll feel okay.”
Even good things. Even ministry. Even the desire to be seen a certain way.
Another thread that stood out was how sloth and overwork can oddly coexist. Many of us live at a relentless pace — full calendars, little rest, thin boundaries — relying on adrenaline to carry us through. Always busy. Rarely fully present.
But Proverbs insists that “the fear of the Lord leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied” (Prov 19:23). Rest isn’t the reward for faithfulness; it’s part of wisdom itself.
Dan called this the antidote to sloth: rest in God. Not disengagement, but trust. Not withdrawal, but a refusal to live as though everything depends on us.
Christopher Ash’s work came up here, an excellent book “Zeal without Burnout” that I often recommend to ministry workers . Rest strengthens us to give ourselves in love and faithfulness. Sloth, by contrast, keeps us from giving ourselves at all.
One of the final things that Dan said struck me the most: how this proverb ultimately points beyond itself. The sluggard holds his hand back. Jesus holds his hands out — in self-giving sacrifice. Where sloth withholds, Christ gives himself fully.
And so Proverbs doesn’t leave us striving harder. It leads us to Jesus, God’s saving wisdom in the world — the one who says, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
The question Dan left us with wasn’t prescriptive, but discerning:
In this season, do I need deeper rest and enjoyment so I can be renewed for faithful service? Or do I need renewed zeal — to expend myself again in love and obedience?
Wisdom is learning to live the rhythm of restful zeal before God — attentively, prayerfully, and with grace.
