"You will get what you work for.
You will enjoy the Lord's blessings,
and all will go well for you."
Psalm 128:2
Sam was broke. I mean, can't-pay-the-rent-on-time, eating-a-bowl-of-cereal-for-dinner-every-night-broke. Oh, he had a job. He worked 40, sometimes 50 hours a week in a job that paid a few dollars more than minimum wage. But it just wasn't enough to pay the bills. His family encouraged him to try and find another job, one that paid more. Others told him to get a second job. He wasn't married and had no children; he had no mortgage to pay. But Sam didn't want to. Instead, he slept. Almost all of his spare time was spent in bed, either watching TV, DVDs or playing video games. Sometimes he went out, but it was usually to hang out with his buddies, spending money he really didn't have.
His mother called him a sloth. She was tired of warding off phone calls from credit card companies. His father reminded him that no woman in their right mind would want to date a guy who was only one step away from having to move back in with his parents. But still, Sam did nothing to change his situation. For five long years, he lived paycheck to paycheck, dodging phone calls from collection agencies, never thinking about moving out of his crummy apartment, getting a more reliable car, or finding a job that paid more. He simply continued to eat at his parent's house when he had no money for food, and bummed money off his friends when he had no money for gas.
Melissa was kind of in the same boat, only she had 3 small children and worked at a fast-food joint getting paid minimum wage. She only worked part-time so she qualified for Food Stamps and welfare. She lied and said she didn't know where her kid's father was. It didn't matter, though, because when he gave her money for the kids, she'd go out and spend it on getting her nails done and her hair styled at the salon.
She lived with her mom, who watched her kids while she worked. They stayed with her on the weekends, too, because Melissa liked to go out with her girlfriends and "chill." She'd use her paycheck to buy drinks and go to clubs and get herself nice, sexy outfits. She insisted on looking sharp at all times, even though her kids often went to school with clothes that were a bit too small or a bit too stained. Her mother often told her to go back to school, to get a better job, but Melissa would just shrug her off. In her mind, she had the best life. She didn't have to work much -- the government gave her money for food, rent, and insurance, after all -- and that gave her plenty of time to hang out with her friends and have fun. Why on Earth would she want to spend that time holed up in some library studying for a degree? Life was for living today, not worrying about tomorrow...
Now, I think all of us can honestly say that we've known a Sam or a Melissa or two in our lives. Maybe we've even been there ourselves at some point or another in our own lives. Maybe it's even worse -- you have an adult child who still lives at home and doesn't even want to work. Or you have a husband who jumps from one unfulfilling job to the next -- with long stretches of purposeful unemployment in-between. Although people like Melissa and Sam think they're lives are just fine as is, the Bible has a few things to say about that.
Proverbs 6:6-11 says:
"You lazy people! You should watch what the ants do and learn from them.
Ants have no ruler, no boss, and no leader. But in the summer, ants gather all of their food and save it.
So when winter comes, there is plenty to eat. You lazy people! How long are you going to lie there?
When will you get up? You say: "I need a rest. I think I'll take a short nap."
But then you sleep and sleep and become poorer and poorer. Soon you will have nothing..."
Proverbs 21:25 says:
"Lazy people will cause their own destruction because they refuse to work."
Proverbs 26:14 says:
"Like a door on its hinges, a lazy man turns back and forth on his bed."
It's pretty obvious that God frowns upon laziness. Instead, he wants us to be productive and fruitful. He wants us to be responsible in everything we do, especially when it comes to our finances. God never once tells us to take it easy, to get by on as little as possible, to take advantage of others (be it family members or the government), to believe that one day you'll become a millionaire by playing the Lotto. No! As a matter of fact, one of the 10 commandments starts with the words "...six days you shall labor and do all your work..." (Exodus 20:8).
In this day and age, laziness can actually be a lifestyle for some people. It's one thing if you were laid off or down-sized or you've hit a rough patch in your life (like your spouse died, you're disabled from an accident or your house got blown away by a hurricane) and you're in a situation where you genuinely need help. That's different. Those types of tragedies do not discriminate and can happen to anyone at any time. But if you're just kinda moping around, living off of family members on and off, sliding into one dead-end job after another, putting your own right-here, right-now needs before the ones of your family, then you need to wake up and smell the cappuccino!
All throughout the Bible you'll find examples of people who have worked hard for their money. Genesis 2:15 tells us that Adam had to work while living in the Garden of Eden. Joseph went from being a slave to working as the most important government administrator in Egypt. Moses worked as a shepherd for his father-in-law for almost 40 years before he returned back to Egypt to free the Israelites. David was also a shepherd and then worked as a soldier before becoming the second king of Israel. The apostle Paul was a tent maker, Matthew was a tax collector, Luke was a physician, Peter and Andrew were fishermen.
And the Bible doesn't just stop with the men, it also mentions women at work. Rachel (the future wife of Jacob) worked as a shepherdess. Deborah sat as a judge. Ruth worked in the fields picking up leftover grain. Lydia, a friend of the disciples in the New Testament, was a successful dealer of fabrics. I mean, come on, people! Even Jesus worked as a carpenter with his step-father, Joseph, and he was the son of God!
What? You think you're better than Jesus?
Look, if you truly want to be successful in life, you have to work hard. My husband started working when he was 14 years old, at the old tennis courts behind his apartment building. He worked as an auto-parts clerk when he was in high school and then moved on to be a mechanic a year later. He knew that a high school diploma wasn't gonna cut it so he took classes at a community college (that was almost an hour and a half away from where he lived), taking classes at night and parking cars in Manhattan almost 7 days a week. Later, he landed a job as a Technician with a dealership, making more money that I did as a teacher, and a few years after that, he joined the Army. Ever since then, he's worked as a school bus Technician for the county, went to Afghanistan as a contractor to work on military trucks and MRAPs, has owned his own lawn-care business on the side, and is now working as the Lead Technician at Firestone. Sure, I want to brag about him, but my point is that he's worked hard for every single thing he has. No one has ever given him a handout. He's worked hard to provide for his family, to move forward in life. Has it been easy? No. I know that for a fact because I've been at his side every step of the way. He's had to overcome tons of personal obstacles, but with the support and love of his family, and God's ever-present hand on him, he's gotten through it all.
And you can, too.
Do you have to aim for being a millionaire? No way. I'm definitely not a fan of these new "prosperity gospels" that tells us God wants us all to live richly, especially when Jesus Himself tells us that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. [Matthew 19:23]. Having too much wealth can often lead to things like pride, deception, greed, selfishness, drugs, promiscuity and a whole bunch of other things that make up the "root of all evil." [1 Timothy 6:10]
Living simply and humbly is just fine. After all, Paul reminds us in the book of Timothy that just like we came into this world with nothing, so we will leave with nothing when we die. (What? You thought you were gonna be able to take that Prada bag with you? Think again sista!) But that does not give you free license to be lazy, or to settle for the bare minimum in life. A little bit of ambition -- a little bit of fire under your buns to get you moving -- is a good thing. What matters is that you're working hard, providing well for your family, not taking advantage or being a burden to others, and giving God all the glory every single day for everything you have.
And don't be jealous of what others have. Don't dream about living like the famous people on MTV cribs do. Believe me, all those movie stars and althletes have their own set of problems that come along with all that money. (Just watch an episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians and you'll see what I mean!) What you need to do (instead of watching all those ridiculous reality TV shows) is be happy with your life. And if you need to improve it -- whether by going back to school, getting a second job, or getting a better paying one -- then turn off the TV, put away your cell phone, and do it!
The Bible says that "...whoever does not work, should not be allowed to eat." [2 Thessalonians 3:10] It sounds pretty harsh, but man, if that's not a motivator for you to go out and change your life, I don't know what is!
Don't be like Sam, whose content to live one day at a time and has no regard for the future. Don't be like Melissa, who uses both the government and her mom as a crutch and thinks only about meeting her needs today, disregarding the needs of her children and their future.
This is your life. You only have one on this Earth.
You might as well make the best of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment