If you know someone who’s depressed, please resolve never to ask them why. Depression isn’t a straightforward response to a bad situation; depression just is, like the weather. Try to understand the blackness, lethargy, hopelessness, and loneliness they’re going through. [1]
Sloth Pop Quiz
Does your mind feel like it’s moving through a thick fog? [2]
Does sleep feel like a distant dream [3] slipping away?
Are everyday tasks, like doing the dishes or cooking, now overwhelming, sapping your energy and motivation?
Do you feel emotionally drained, as if even existing is a struggle?
Let’s take a straightforward quiz to help confront and understand the paralyzing effects of sloth in our lives.
Is Sloth More Than a Sin?
Depression, like the weather, is a complex and undeniable reality.
Sloth, often misunderstood as mere laziness, runs much deeper and involves a blend of psychological, spiritual, and moral struggles.
This complexity raises a difficult question: Does God view those struggling with sloth, caught in deep mental and emotional suffering, as sinners?
Does He understand the complexities of what we’re going through?
Should we fear that He could turn away, repelled by our pain?
Understanding Sloth Through Etymology
Exploring the 7 Deadly Sins, we noticed they’re often overlooked today.
Therefore, to better understand them, we examined the insights of early theologians like John Cassian and St. Thomas Aquinas.
For sloth, we’ll also examine its etymology by exploring its roots in Old and New Testament Greek and Latin to grasp its true meaning.
ACEDIA — in OT Greek, signifies being “without care” or “heedless.” English Bibles often translate it as “a faint spirit” or “the spirit of heaviness” to convey its meaning. For instance, Isaiah 61:3 refers to acedia as “heaviness,” as in “the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” In Proverbs 12:27, acedia is associated with avoiding one’s proper work, stating, “A slothful man will not catch his prey.”
HOKNEEROS — in NT Greek, implies “shrinking from” or “hesitating to engage in something worthwhile,” suggesting a possible “lack of ambition” or “laziness.” Matthew 25:26 condemns a character as a “wicked and slothful servant,” while Romans 12:11 urges believers to “Never flag in zeal (hokneeroi), be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord.”
TRISTITIA — in Latin, originally meant “sorrow.” St. Thomas Aquinas [4] however, emphasized the painful feelings associated with sloth. This emphasis on emotional distress inspired the English term “sloth,” derived from the Middle English term slou or “slow.”
So, What About The Bible?
And so, with this fresh understanding from the etymology, connecting sorrow to the heaviness of heart, would you say you’ve been feeling that way?
Whether it’s at the end of the day or when you wake up, leaving you feeling drained and unmotivated?
Are you now convinced that sloth is more than just laziness?
A feeling that involves a mix of listlessness, apathy, lack of ambition, and emotional struggles, both spiritual and psychological?
Sloth Has Been Oversimplified
The term success has shifted as it was centuries ago. Having a beautiful home, a simple life, a beautiful wife, healthy children, and serving the community has been replaced with how many possessions you have.
In the same principle, the understanding of sloth in its complexity has been oversimplified to mere resistance to work.
Let’s choose to divert from this contemporary perspective and go back to a time when sloth and depression were closely related.
Why God Painfully Calls Sloth a Sin
The profound perspective of St. Thomas Aquinas [5] on sloth as a deadly sin has been overshadowed today.
He characterized sloth as tristitia de bono spirituali, meaning “sadness in the face of spiritual good.”
This definition reveals why sloth is a sin.
Harboring deep resentment, rejection, and sorrow towards God while ignoring His stretched-out hand to lift you out of misery and pain.
It’s like clinging to the edge of a cliff while a friend reaches out to pull you up, but you choose to let go instead of accepting their help.
For those who doubt God’s existence, sloth can feel like a deep rejection of a deity who seems indifferent to the world’s suffering.
For believers, it might appear as though God doesn’t care about their struggles.
Ultimately, this leads to detachment from God, despite His readiness [6] to give everything to those who feel undeserving.
The person enslaved by sloth lives in negligent lethargy, believing that God has completely abandoned them. However, this belief is mistaken; sloth reflects human disorder, not God’s nature.
The Anatomy of Sloth
Sloth, therefore, boils down to 3 phases:
1. Feelings of sorrow, heaviness, and hopeless conviction that life has no meaning.
- Viewing depression solely as a clinical diagnosis can prolong hopelessness by implying there’s nothing you can do about it.
2. Aversion to effort—moral danger of sloth.
- The labor required to exert one’s will to make moral and spiritual choices seems undesirable and demanding.
- Today, this aversion is reinforced by society’s focus on biological and environmental causes, overlooking the sin of sloth.
3. Distractions with insignificant activities.
- To keep from worrying about his failures to perform, the slothful puts off essential duties and occupies himself with valueless involvements. [7]
We Just Can’t Reduce Depression To “Nothing But” Sin
I feel it’s important to address this again through a different lens.
It’s unkind to label depression only as a sin.
Saying it’s “nothing but” sounds more like secular philosophy rather than a Christian view of psychological phenomena.
How? The atheistic view of life reduces its complexities to “nothing but” a bunch of chemical reactions, ignoring the extensive works written to address life’s rich complexity.
Even though biochemical abnormalities [7] are characteristic of depression (sloth), we are not encouraged by Scripture and our theological predecessors to reduce it only as sin.
How Then Should We Deal With Sloth?
We’ve carefully explored why sloth is considered a deadly sin, aiming to shed light on the state of our hearts.
And as we explored in a previous post [8], fighting depressive habits has become a popular topic with much written about it.
So, instead of overwhelming you with strategies, I encourage you to consider these questions privately:
1. Can you talk about your challenges with a trusted friend? If not, can you write down what’s been going wrong?
2. Has your loyal friend shown empathy and care with supportive words?
3. Has this friend helped challenge any negative beliefs [9] you might have?
4. If you believe in a caring God, do you think He wants you to suffer through mental anguish?
5. If you’re still reading, are you willing to work on improving your situation?
6. If you’re open to it, would you like to learn how to start this improvement journey?
7. If you think there’s no hope and your self-talk is always right, is there a reason to strive for better? Do you deserve this life you’re now living?
8. You’ve come this far and have the strength to take small steps toward recovery. Do you believe that?
Hacks For Your Recovery
Thank you for considering those questions.
Here are some practical solutions you can start using at home with God’s help:
1. Here’s The Friend You Need
If you don’t have a loyal friend with whom you can share all your troubles, let me recommend him (here).
He is the only person offering you His hand, promising to stand by you through life’s highs and lows.
He will be there with you even in the world to come when you are made perfect, forever and ever.
2. Natural Ways To Heal Your Brain Biochemistry
Before seeing a psychiatrist for antidepressants, try these natural methods to improve your brain’s chemistry:
(a) Reset Your Circadian Rhythm
Each day, soak in at least 60 minutes of sunlight [10]
Don’t miss the chance to enjoy the sunset [11] and sunrise [12].
Always put your phone, TV, or laptop away at night to prepare you for a deep sleep.
(b) Immerse Yourself in 3D Activities
Tackle those neglected dishes, dirty laundry, and shoes [13] preferably with cold water.
Make time to tidy up your room. [14]
Initiate the habit of daily gratitude journaling [15] with good old pen and paper. [16]
(c) Do Away With Junk Foods
Instead of junk [17], consider foods rich in tyrosine (sprinkle pumpkin and sunflower seeds in your meals, including oats, watermelon, and soybeans in your breakfast).
Foods rich in folate (find it in lentils, spinach, okra pods, black-eyed peas).
Foods rich in tryptophan (seeds like sesame and almonds).
All these will enhance your mood and cognitive function.
(d) Embrace Outdoor Physical Exercise
Go for a run [18], do jumping jacks, hop on your bike, or take a swim [19] to boost dopamine levels.
This will expose you to sunshine [20], induce fatigue for better sleep, enhance blood circulation, encourage increased hydration [21], and even potentially inspire you to opt for refreshing cold showers. [22]
Professional Assistance
If you’re looking to tackle your depression comprehensively, check out the excellent online programs by Nedley Health:
INSPIRATION
1. What Your Counselor Never Told You by Dr. William Backus
2. The Lost Art of Thinking by Neil Nedley M.D
3. Proof Positive by Neil Nedley M.D
4. King James Bible
