By: Justin Dillenschneider, Director of Student Life
Week of April 25th, 2022
Industriousness can be characterized by earnest, diligent, and steady effort and hard work. Since the curse that followed the fall, humanity has struggled to work in ways that are glorifying to God and healthy in pace. Particularly in modern Western society, we value individual productivity to a degree that pushes us to pursue output and quantity above all else. When we begin to burnout from an unsustainable pace, we crash and can easily fall into laziness or a lack of desire for good work. Industriousness seeks to find a balance between the apathy of laziness and the unsustainable pace of constant work with no rest. Sabbath rest can be a gift to followers of Christ to remind us where our worth and value reside and to remind us that God’s work will be accomplished on His time and according to His purpose. We are participants and image-bearers of the one true God; what we create and work towards has purpose and provides fulfillment only when it is given to God first and for His glory alone.
Continue contemplating industriousness by looking at this week’s scripture readings from:
Proverbs 13:4 ESV “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.”
Galatians 6:9 “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
We want to encourage you to have a conversation this week about the virtue of industriousness.
Consider these discussion prompts together:
- What tempts you to fall into laziness?
- Where have you seen people fall into workaholism? Where are you tempted to do so?
- What are some ways you see Christ correcting workaholic or lazy behavior in people in Scripture?
- How do we see the apostles and the early church modeling and celebrating industriousness in their words and actions?