an idle mind is the devils playground
i feel like most people have heard of this saying before, it means that if you are unoccupied or bored, you will end up doing things that get you in trouble. but what you might not know is that it’s from the bible, but not really.
the actual phrase comes from a verse in proverbs 16:27 and it goes:
An ungodly man diggeth up evil, and in his lips there is as a burning fire
it was only in the 1970s, when kenneth taylor published ‘the living bible’, the idea of idleness was injected into the translation resulting in: idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece
but how did ‘ungodly’ become ‘idle’, which generally means ‘lazy’.
in 2 thessalonians 3:11, the apostle paul says that those who are idle or not busy are easily led to sin. proverbs 18:9 also explains that one who is lazy in their work is the same as someone who destroys ( this one goes pretty hard actually )
the sentiments that laziness can lead to all kinds of evil doings have led to various insightful translations and studies. this includes st. jeromes writing in the late 4th century, “engage in some occupation, so that the devil may always find you busy,” which is likely where the influence for the modern translation came from.
but obviously the bible was written a really long time ago, so does this still apply to people today, are idle hands really the devils workshop?
in my opinion, i feel like the context has shifted, but the message still stands. i definitely don’t believe that being lazy is going to lead to a crime. but often times i find myself in a phase where i’m not doing anything i would consider productive, and suddenly i can’t eat, i can’t go out, i need to find 5 things i can see, 4 things i can touch, 3 things i can hear, 2 things i can smell and 1 thing i can taste.
maybe there really was a devil playing in my mind.
in the past, doing nothing for long periods of time has definitely contributed to my mental health declining, and this was very apparent during the pandemic.
before the pandemic i was busy 24/7, in both good ways and bad ways. so when the pandemic hit, i really struggled with the idea of not being able to do anything, which is what most of you reading probably also struggled with.
but in the few months of the pandemic, it wasn’t too bad as things were still fresh. my brother and i would go on instagram live to box and eat fish food, i tried to learn sign language, i tried to be a tiktoker (and failed), i bought a mic and recorded a tokyo drift remix ( that i dropped recently )
but as the lockdown went on and i ran out of things to do that’s when everything went downhill.
but thankfully everything is pretty much back to normal, i think. but getting back to life and picking up where we left off has been difficult. suddenly i’m 3 years older and all my friends are in a different phase of their lives and generally a lot of things changed.
recently, i’ve managed to find a few things that i genuinely enjoy doing and they also make me feel productive ( cheat code ) so hopefully, there are no devils playing in my playground.
song of the week
riddle of the week
where can you finish a book without finishing a sentence?
the answer will be in next weeks issue.
last weeks answer: a stapler.
that's all for this week!
if you’ve made it to the end, thank you so much!
forward this to a friend if you think it’ll make their morning
see you in next weeks issue of monday madness 🤪✌🏽
nice 👍🏽👍🏽