Proverbs 06 – working out
Go to the ant, O sluggard,
Observe her ways and be wise,
Which, having no chief,
Officer or ruler,
Prepares her food in the summer
And gathers her provision in the harvest.Proverbs 6:6-8 from New American Standard Bible
As opposed the verses focused on yesterday, pointing out you have to slow down a little, this one focuses on the fact you really need to act, and take care of yourself.
If you try to do everything yourself you will just get burned out, yet if you do nothing for yourself you are not achieving all you can.
At times I fall into this category of just allowing myself to drift with the current, yet this is not as natural for me as attempting to row across the ocean under my own power. For many, I see them just wanting to rely on the good will and fortune of other, your family, strangers, friends, government, or even an employer. Just happy with their life and never looking to the future or pushing to improve their life. This does not mean materially, but including physically, spiritually, socially, financially, mentally, ability to produce or help others, or other areas of their life.
Yes, these verses are in the specific terms of production and preparation for winter, yet you can have a winter in any area of your life.
If everyone in the world took this simple mindset we would not have “great national tragedies” like we “currently are” ….
If half the people of the world stored up resources, or focused on improving their personal situation in every aspect of their life, then when “winter” comes for the other half, more people would be prepared to help their neighbors (since social, or community is a part of your life).
The bottom line is you can only help people out of your strength. The minimum wage employee received money out of the strength of what the employer has. The employer receives time, out of the strength that the employee has. If the employer has more money, the employer has the ability to employ more people, pay the employee more, upgrade the facilities/systems or give/spend/invest is, which in turn creates more opportunities for others.
For me, this verse is encouragement to become stronger in the seven areas of life that I view the world from:
- physical
- mental
- spiritual
- social & community
- family
- personal finance
- production
Why?
You have to come up with that answer for yourself, it might be to have more stuff; it might be to gain peace, joy, happiness, or another feeling. It might be like me where I can help more people. You have to come up with your own why for each area of your life & you might not always have a why in a particular area — I find when I don’t (like physical at this moment) it is much harder to practice or improve in that area.
Part of the Proverbs Challenge series
Proverbs 07 – men & Evil
Countless victims come under her spell;
she’s the death of many a poor man.
She runs a halfway house to hell,
fits you out with a shroud and a coffin.Proverbs 7:26-27 from The Message
Here are two more extremes:
1. there is no evil in the world or in the hearts of men
2. all men are evil – the question is how evil are they?
Two of elements that these specific verses touch on that include that there are forces, people, organizations in the business of damaging and destroying people & has had success. Secondly, these destructive activities, actions, events, etc have to be appealing to people.
Why else would anyone come under the spell?
If more people see, know, and acknowledge this more people would be able to resist the spell and live longer – living could be physically, or could be from a mental or spiritual standpoint.
::: Update on the March 8th :::
This morning, I had a thought. This chapter is focused on adultery, and where adultery is sorta unique, it is at the core not, and the “examples” in this chapter are not. There are other industries/action/etc that are damaging on yourself, that will prevent you from living life to the fullest that could be substituted in this passage and be just as true. Some would work/fit better then others, but the base is that they all can trap you in a snare that will prevent you from reaching your potential & damage relationships, or potential relationships.
Part of the Proverbs Challenge series
Proverbs 08 – flirting with death
When you find me[Lady Wisdom], you find life, real life,
to say nothing of God’s good pleasure. But if you wrong me, you damage your very soul;
when you reject me, you’re flirting with death.Proverbs 08:25-26 from The Message
What if you lived in a society that the major focus was to gain wisdom?
Could we define wisdom as something that would giver insight into life? Real life?
Would along with that definition, by definition rejecting a pursuit of wisdom or embarrassing a lifestyle that you know to be unwise (or less wise) would be a love affair with death?
Part of fully living, or living a balanced life, or a number of other slightly different philosophies people base their life on are all centered around a couple concepts including:
1. you cannot be on the go 100% of the time and produce the most you can
2. you have to make a continence decision to take time to learn and grow
If we lived in a world where everyone took time to learn and grow, we would have a better life, yet the key is that the individual must make the decision – it cannot be forced.
Part of the Proverbs Challenge series
