TOD 01.08.08

Proverbs 18:9 teaches us, “He also who is slack in his work is brother to him who destroys.” This is far more than just a hyperbole discouraging laziness. Imagine a particular day in which one man builds a house and another man burns it to the ground. In contrast, imagine if the builder had simply stayed in bed all day. No construction, no arson. At the end of both days, value is the same: no new houses. (Of course, I’m ignoring the lost raw materials only for simplicity’s sake.)

That’s what this proverb is getting at. Time is nothing but the potential to build things, serve people, and create value. Failing to use our time productively deprives the world of these valuables just as surely as if we actively destroyed such work by others. We are in effect robbing the universe of the riches it could have held.

A hungry man doesn’t care whether the food he doesn’t receive was from a farmer being too lazy to harvest or from a burglar destroying the food pantry. His hunger doesn’t know the difference. The imperative, “Whatever your hand find to do, do it with all your might,” is much more than just a piece of occupational advice.