PAUL NOW TURNS to the idle: “Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work in quietness and to earn their own living. Brethren, do not be weary in well-doing” (2 Thess. 3:12). If this last verse had stood alone—“Brethren, do not be weary in well-doing”—we would have thought it meant works of charity and service of others. Here Paul equates well-doing with earning your own living and working with your hands. Is that well-doing? Yes.
India is finding it so. Hundreds of thousands of holy men have lived in holy idleness, seated in ashes, in meditation. Now that is changing. I received an invitation to speak to a center established by the government for the rehabilitation of these holy men, teaching them to work and contribute to society instead of being parasites. Brahma was the actionless God, hence the devotees of Brahma were to be actionless. But Brahma, the actionless, is being replaced in the minds of men by the conception of the Father who works hitherto and is now working. The God who does not work, does not eat. This works for God and man. It is basic to life; if you don’t work you don’t live.
That happens to the idle rich who live on the earnings of their parents. They degenerate. “Three generations from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves” is a saying packed with observation and wisdom.
A woman upset and distracted said to me: “My husband and I got along as long as he was working. But now that he is retired with nothing to do he is unhappy and grumpy and he is under my feet all day and we are in conflict.” Don’t retire—change your occupation. You are happy only when you are creative. You are created by the Creator for creation, and if you are not creative you are cranky and unhappy, because you are unfulfilled. Life says, create or perish.
O creative Spirit, live within me and make me a creative being. It may be that my creations are tiny, but they will be creations. I will be in line with the will and purpose of the Creator—hence adjusted, hence happy. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: When I fulfill the creative will of God, I fulfill myself, for I am made for creation.
