Idle hands

“Idle hands are the devils playground.”

On face value this is a strange saying for a person like me to write about. It seems to refer to a supernatural devil. I don’t believe in any such thing for at least one very simple reason. If the impulse to do the wrong thing comes from inside of us, why would there be a need for a supernatural being to be a tempter? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

So why blog about the saying? I heard a friend talk about it recently and what he said put a different perspective on the saying for me.

He said that the saying actually has a useful message for all of us. If we keep ourselves busy our minds and/or our bodies are engaged, which makes it less likely that we will do the wrong thing or get into mischief. Sitting around doing nothing can lead to boredom and we may go aimlessly looking for something to do which can lead to problems. My friend took this a step further. He suggested the same logic applies to our thoughts. If we have nothing to occupy our mind, then unproductive thoughts can easily fill that void.

There’s a parable in God’s Bible that describes this very thing.

“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation.” (Matthew 12:43-45 NLT)

The lesson Jesus intended in this parable aligns so well with the saying about idle hands. There’s a lot more in the Bible to help us in our daily lives now - and an amazing hope for a perfect life when Jesus comes.