(Proverbs 19:15) “Slothfulness casts into
a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger.”
Retirement is a time to be idle and
yet it is a shame to be idle; the more I look into the mirror the more I realize
how wrong I have perceived so many things along life’s journey! Just about
every voice we hear in society today is a trap! But why have I not understood
that until now? But then again how many people ever understand! I thank God my
Father for opening my eyes! It is obvious that we can be so active in the throes
of life that we miss out on our calling to serve Gods as we ort! So let us
understand what this lesson actually teaches!
Here it is plain to see the
disposition of the sluggish; those who are always looking for easy-outs; it
causes a slothfulness that will only ever end badly. It carries with it no
sense, a life full of dreams with very little action. From the beginning we
were all burdened with this reality and that is if we do not work we shall not
eat; “And
to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and
have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,'
cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days
of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall
eat the plants of the field. By
the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."” (Genesis 3:17-19) –
Note. The penalty for sin was to work until
we die and yet man in his wisdom has looked to defy the odds and at the age of
65 is now able to retire, pension funds and the like have been put into place,
and then what? This perception is largely accepted by most, that the time has come to now relax, you have worked hard all your life and now it is time to be idle. Gather
shells on a beach, or spend the time we have left living a life of leisure, whatever
the individual determines… and then the judgment!
It is obvious to conclude that we are all meant
to find a job, get busy, work and then eat. No free meal-ticket! This is the
one part of the equation, but the other slice is far more valuable and often
overlooked. As children of God we have all received “talents”, it is the soul
we must pay careful attention too. This life with all its gathered wealth and
materialism will pass away but our souls will exists forever. Here then is the
observation; one that is idle in the affairs of their soul, is the one is very
serious trouble. Sure, the idle who lazes about never doing a honest day’s work
will suffer hunger and ends up begging bread, but the ones who take no care in
working out their salvation in fear and trembling will suffer far greater loss
and carry it into eternity.
I have known hard working men who have had the
role of elders in a church and when retirement age was reached, they have
chosen to relinquish that role to retire at the coast. They haven’t understood!
What of family and friends who have chosen rather to pursue careers at the
expense of their obligations to the body of Christ (the church), they too haven’t
understood!
For
those who wandered about in sheep’s clothing, persecuted day and night, the off
scouring’s of the world, those who have been looked upon by society as useless;
- “Others suffered mocking and flogging, and
even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they
were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats,
destitute, afflicted, mistreated-- of whom the world was not worthy--wandering about in deserts and
mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews
11:36-38) -
They
understood! Where do I stand, where do
you stand with this consideration? The time is short, may God help us all!
Signing off
Tyrone
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