consider its ways, and be wise.
Without having any chief
or officer or ruler,
it prepares its food in summer,
and gathers its sustenance in harvest.
How long will you lie there, O lazybones?
When will you rise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want, like an armed warrior.” NRSV
“Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy” (Ephesians 4:28 NRSV).
“For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right” (2 Thessalonians 3:10-13 NRSV).
There is a new phenomenon of child neglect and it has to do with computer games. Moms, dads, couples so involved in their computer activities—games, chat rooms, blogs, internet shopping—that they neglect their own children (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1557480/Couple-play-computer-games-as-children-starve.html).
We are a society of recreation. That has become, for many, the goal . . . and for those many, their god. We are to be called, not fondly, lazybones, for we would prefer to play and indulge ourselves, to sleep and rest, to watch TV and have fun, rather than to work and do what is right.
There is a weariness that is not of the body, but rather of the spirit, of our choices. We can weary of doing what is right. (If that were not the case, the apostle Paul wouldn’t have admonished against it.) Solomon was adroit in saying: “a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.” To be honest, that is a good description of recreation. We want to work five days, take off two. Work forty-nine weeks, take off three. Work twenty years . . . take off twenty! And poverty is coming upon us because we are becoming a people that scorns honest work.
We would rather play.
Sister Aimee McPherson, who founded the Foursquare Church organization and built the Echo Park Angeles Temple debt free, was walking down the church aisle after a long service (which included an after-service prayer time). A young seminary student was waiting in the back to talk with her. This student walked down the aisle and, in doing so, ignored the piece of trash that was on the floor. Sister Aimee walked past the student and stooped to pick up the trash. She asked the student quietly, “Do you intend to be a pastor?”
“Yes! Yes!” he responded enthusiastically.
“You’ll never make it,” she replied quietly and exited the building.
That story, passed down through my family, has stuck with me for many years. When we tire of doing simple, humble work, we set aside the most basic lessons of scripture which are to “work quietly and to earn [our] own living.” We forget that this is one of the basic foundations of “doing what is right.”
The Lord doesn’t expect us to accomplish great things . . . as the world measures great things. He merely expects us to follow Him moment by moment doing those things which are humble and quiet, those things ignored by the world, but for which He has ordained our hands to do.
© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).
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