Laziness Leads to Poverty

“I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.” (Proverbs 24:30-34. NIV).

Picture an agricultural society in the days of Solomon. Vineyards were to be well-kept and the walls surrounding them in good repair. The good vineyard-keeper would have well-tended grounds and his lands would be a showplace and example for others. On the other hand, the sluggard, or lazy person, would take his rest and slumber, and quickly his lands would be in shambles. What we sometimes call the Puritan Work Ethic was instilled in children growing up in my home community of Choestoe. Moreover, most all of the other farmers in our agricultural community followed the same standards of work, and kept their property in good repair and productive. The occasional backslider to duty, the sluggard, would be an example of how not to conduct honest toil, hard work, necessary to good living.

As we often say, “Times have changed.” We are no longer mainly an agrarian society. But this does not mean that we cannot take pride in work—whatever our pursuits in honest toil—for work is honorable and how we approach it is likewise important. Laziness and refusal to work rob a person of personal accomplishment. Likewise, when work is not held honorable, and when a person becomes lazy and undependable in the exercise of expected duties, the worker suffers and many dependent on good labor for products and services suffer as well. Honest, fulfilling work is a chain reaction. It builds character and develops a strong system of dependability on work well done.

For those of you who are retirees, as I am, it would seem that work is finished. It has been twenty years since I finished my career as a teacher. It was a job I took seriously and loved, and exercised some of the same principles I had been taught by my father on the farm where we worked hard—not only during planting, cultivating and harvesting—but all seasons, to keep the “branch banks cut and the fences mended” to name a few “off” season tasks. The principles of “laziness leads to poverty” can apply to volunteer jobs, even in retirement. To keep active, to find avenues of honorable and needful service, and to work as though your livelihood depended on it are characteristics of the work ethic a Christian should follow. To see the “welfare rolls” of today and to examine how this situation is perpetuated generation after generation would certainly bring forth condemnation from the wise sage, Solomon, as well as from our forebears who held work and the quality and dependability of it as sacred privileges of the responsible.

Today, be grateful for honest, productive work. It is still needed to make our world a better place in which to live (and work).

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Sunday, July 25, 2010