We are almost always at our best in the way we feel about ourselves when we contribute to the context of mature life and experience. Persons who provide for themselves in this or that factor feel better about circumstances and the matter at hand than those who learn to work a system in which their only contribution is to wangle a privilege, or a product, or a position. My son and his wife owned a four-unit building in which I lived. The negative in the ownership was that, from time to time, a renter did not pay the rent, at first late, then dropping back a month, then two months. Ultimately they were asked to move. The cost of their care was greater than the rental, even if they paid it. Their habits, vehicles, and lifestyles defied excuses. Aggravations along the way included poor communication with the owner’s representatives, such as repair persons who check equipment and maintain the grounds; the only complainer if snow is not removed immediately, (perhaps several times to be removed from the driveway during a continuing snow); disregard for the lease agreement to serve the rightful expectations of the other renters and the owner; and, leaving the unit in deplorable conditions when they finally vacated. (Recently, the annual review of the heating company indicated the need to replace the four furnaces, to include new safety features, at a cost of $20,000.00. Special planning had to be worked out with this occupant and a hanger-on who has joined the recalcitrant renter of record so to make the unit available on time for a service properly followed for occupant safety and comfort. Not only does the owner take on the cost of renovation, but occupants may leave owing back rent – all the while offering ill will toward the owner. The people who appear to have some odd arrangements will move on to work the same system that avoids duty and participation. They take advantage of a system and persons who mean to serve them well, but in a balance of factors. Even the closing down of their accounts for water and electricity by the city introduced a cost of return for service before the unit can be rented with the additional loss of rent during the interim.) What strikes me in this is that those contributing the least are also the least appreciative. This tells us something about society.
God is a worker. He does not measure his work in material wages, as we so often do, but in fulfilling part of his meaning – to share his wealth of creative power. Because we are his children we will perforce of his creation try to do what he does – albeit in greatly reduced analogy to his order. Work is related to order in God that includes prayer and labor. There is mystery in the prayer person moving the wheels of God, opening the channels, serving in the chores, and identifying as participants in the work of God. To do that properly requires some exchange with the boss and that in the knowledge of his nature and way of doing things. That relates to prayer. Prayer is the quiet (humble) manner in which this is all worked through.
As is often the case we take Scripture and put our spin to it. The statement to the Thessalonians seems harsh in the way the secularist might interpret it – that a person is shut out from the banquet table if avoiding work. The Apostle is simply stating that God’s children have duties, which if neglected means the person is not qualified to share with others whatever is God’s table. We know from the life of Paul that he served all persons, but he differentiated between that which was identified as spiritual and that which is human. As a Christian I hope all persons, even the shirkers, will be fed, housed, clothed and treated with dignity. As a person of ministry it must be clear that for the reservations of Christian fellowship the worker of privilege needs ordered maturity in life. That which is the work of the person of service in God’s name is in process of returning to God in service to mankind in normalcy neither exalting privilege nor denying needs. Jesus had far more to say about the poor and what needed to be done for them than he had to say about the discipline that differentiated between love to care, and skepticism that used the system without regard for the circumstances by which the needs were addressed. There is always work to be done, and persons to be cared for, but the motivation must be understood – and not distorted. All able persons have work to do, and all have right to the necessities of life. Management relates to all persons exercising the gifts of God that include self-esteem and order for us. It all makes a rewarding life. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020