becoming a person of diligence

Prov 13:4 - The slacker craves, yet has nothing, but the diligent is fully satisfied. (HSCB)

I love this verse, partly because it uses the word “slacker”, but mainly because of the great truth and promise that it is. I must confess that after I took to using the Holman Christian Standard Bible I fell in love with its simplistic way of declaring truth – I know when I have been a slacker, and so does God!

Some commentators see this verse solely relating to a persons discipline with regards to work – I would conjecture that here would be a strong base of the old protestant work ethic of “God helps those who help themselves”. I want to dispel this interpretation of this verse – there is much more to it that just reward for hard personal effort! However, I would love $10 for every time I have shattered a believers attitude when explaining that that particular phrase is not a bible verse – not even in Hezekiah!

There are two key words as I see it – slacker and diligent and the outcomes of this verse are either negative or positive, depending on where you are at, or more to the point, where you remain. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines them as follows:

Slacker – a person who avoids work or effort. Originally used in the USA to describe a person who deliberately avoided military service. A modern usage is to describe a person characterised by apathy and aimlessness.

Diligent – to be careful and conscientious in one’s work or duties

The main reason why I don’t believe that this verse relates to our work life, but is talking about our “complete” life, is the usage of the word “soul” at the beginning of the verse. This has more to do with a person’s “heart desire”, than the outcome of effort and work. The intent of this word is that it describes the heart, the person, the very life of someone.  It describes the very totality of who we are – the completeness of a person – a person who has been created in the image of God. But this happens to be a slacker, a sluggard, with cravings that will never be satisfied.

The terms sluggard, slacker, can be interchanged with lazy, but the basic meaning is to describe a person who is habitually lazy, with a strong implication that the person also displays no discipline and initiative. This lazy, ill disciplined person is further described by Solomon as someone who craves things. It’s not the kind of craving that a pregnant woman may have – it is far deeper than that. What Solomon was describing was a strong yearning, even a lusting for things. Yet , with all the lusting, yearning, and desiring that the slacker can muster, he ends up with nothing.

So, to paraphrase Solomon in the first part of this verse – The lazy, slack and ill-disciplined person will try and fill their life with things that consume their waking moments, but will receive nothing that they dream and yearn for.

But it gets better – look at the promise that comes after the handing down of the judgment to the slacker – let’s recap what Solomon declared – but the diligent is fully satisfied. How awesome is that! Diligence brings reward; diligence brings authority and diligence brings riches.

I believe that as Christians, we are called to be diligent, and not lazy. To some, this comes easy, but to others it requires a lot effort, work and discipline. Some people are born with self-discipline, others need it developed in their lives. But that’s why we have a God in Heaven, isn’t it?  If we submit to Him, He will transform us.

For those of you like me who were created without a lot of discipline – i.e. with a sanguine personality, or if you are more of a phlegmatic type, we can take counsel from one of God’s smallest creations – the ant. Solomon makes a really valid point in Prov 6:6 – Go to the ant, you slacker! Observe its ways and become wise.

When i was a kid growing up in Sydney, we used to experience awesome and powerful summer thunderstorms – usually late in the afternoon. I reckon that I would have been around 10 or 11 before I realised that I could predict an upcoming thunderstorm just by watching the ants near the gate that was at the front of our driveway. From about an hour to an hour and-a-half before the thunderstorm would arrive, we would see all these ants scurrying around on the driveway trying to get things into their nest – if it was St Georges Terrace, it would have been a stampede. The ants were frenetic but they seemed to know what was coming, and what they had to do to protect themselves.

I guess that this was what Solomon was trying to portray when he commanded the slacker to go to the ant and observe its ways.

I’ll leave you with one scripture, Prov 10:4 Idle hands make one poor, but diligent hands bring riches.

Lord, make me diligent in spite of myself!!!!