Proverbs 13:4
I am sure you have heard the news about the
number of people who get support from the government. And unfortunately this
support leads to an attitude of entitlement. The more that is given freely, the
less people feel the need to work, to be productive with their lives. The aid
seems to suck the desire for productivity. Many millions of underemployed just
want the opportunity to work. Others just want more programs to help them.
At the same time productivity is being
drained the desire from more aid increases. The Obama phone program is a good
example. It started with good intentions. The desperately poor need a phone for
emergencies, to hear back from a potential employer or their doctor. Now people
pull up in the Escalade talking on their Obama phone spending their food stamps
on lobster.
Our proverb tells us that this is the norm.
We call these types of folks lazy. They might have a disability, but very few disabilities
prevent someone from doing anything. And our system prevents work by removing all
benefits if an income threshold is reached. If you feel lazy is too harsh a
term, sluggard sounds even worse!
The point of our proverb is satisfaction.
When we take the opportunity to be productive, diligent, then we can be satisfied.
If we don’t, we are never satisfied.
I know men who are unemployed. It is driving
them nuts. They want to be out working, earning a living for their families,
which they have done for years, but now they feel like they are spinning their
wheels. Their sense of worth has evaporated.
These unemployed only want to be productive
again. They don’t want handouts. They want work. They don’t want something for
nothing. They just want the chance to go and do something with their time and
talents that helps to pay the bills.
The sluggard, on the other hand, always
wants more for less. Other people owe them something because of ________ (you
fill in the blank). The reason they feel owed may vary, but the result is often
the same. They want more given to them.
I can relate to those who get stuck in the
handout cycle. We had to use food stamps many years ago for a short period of
time. It would have been easy to stay in that state. We choose to get out of it
as fast as we could. We hated taking something for nothing. It kept food on the
table, but it made us feel sick.