A big disease gnawing at our vitals is sheer laziness!
Apathy, lethargy, inefficiency; these are the common denominators of our times!
Read God's challenge to indolence in this article.
"WE'VE entered the age of the goof-off," shouted the Chicago American recently. And it's true! This is the time of the tea break, dawdling at the water-cooler, going out for coffee; the time of the 5 o'clock stampede!
It's a time of sloppy work, half-finished jobs, careless bids, unkept promises, slipshod construction, poor materials, and just plain laziness!
WHAT'S GONE WRONG?
Is work a disease? Is it a SIN to render to your employer a good, hard, honest day's work? Is it WRONG to give an honest bid, to supply good materials, to produce, to WORK HARD?
In some circles — it is! For example, five members of an automobile workers' union in the United States were charged by fellow workers with "working too hard," and were fined and suspended from their union for two years! The men, accused of working at speeds above a normal standard, were given heavy fines and a suspension from their labor organization! Further, about 90 per cent of the membership APPROVED of the penalties against the men!
It Was PROPHESIED!
Think of it! Living in the times of the GREATEST DANGER in the recorded history of man — the threat of nuclear war, deep racial problems, untoward natural cataclysms, growing drought and hunger, a burgeoning population explosion — yes, the time of man's greatest danger — yet, APATHY is extant as never before.
God said it would be this way. "For this know also, that in the last days PERILOUS TIMES shall come . . ." (II Tim. 3:1). Yes, PERILOUS TIMES — the times in which you live! But what would be the attitude during these perilous times? "For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, LOVERS OF PLEASURES MORE THAN LOVERS OF GOD; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof — from such turn away!" (II Tim. 3:2-5).
A striking paradox, isn't it? In the face of grave DANGER — during "perilous times," men would, according to your Bible, become LOVERS OF PLEASURES — haughty, proud, indolent, thinking only of THEMSELVES — instead of busily working to avoid calamity!
God inspired Ezekiel to write of our day (remember, Ezekiel prophesied impending national calamity for the peoples of Israel, over 120 years AFTER Israel had already gone into a captivity from which they never returned!), of the wrong message, the "wicked counsel" of FALSE ministers, and leaders in political offices who say, "IT IS NOT NEAR," or nothing is going to happen — we shall have PEACE!
Read this remarkable prophecy in the eleventh chapter of Ezekiel. Notice verse 3: "Let us build houses — this city is the caldron, and WE be the flesh!"
Yes — the proverbial "FLESHPOT." What a paradox it is that in the face of immediate and terrible danger people turn to licentiousness, immorality, phlegmatism and apathy!
An elderly couple in one of the Plains states was warned hurriedly of a rapidly approaching tornado! Their minds simply refused to grasp this awesome truth. They sat in their living-room, INSISTING the horrifying roar approaching them was nothing but a passing locomotive!
However, there wasn't a train within forty miles of their home. The tornado blew them and their home into oblivion!
Soldiers, pinned down under heavy enemy fire on the battlefield, have been known TO LOSE ALL GRASP of what was happening around them! Some have STOOD UP, making the statement they were "going home" or some similar senseless saying. Their minds simply snapped under the tremendous pressure — refusing to admit the terrifying DANGER they faced!
The 5 O'clock Stampede
This paradoxical characteristic of human nature to refuse to admit what it does not WISH to admit is evident in the tremendous debauchery of modern society! The closer our impending national calamity — the faster we toboggan-slide into complete and utter moral depravity! Instead of busily seeking the way out of our approaching calamity — we take time to play!
Secretary of Commerce, Luther Hodges, said, "We are SOFT in this country!"
Mr. Hodges, having had the initiative and driving ambition to work his way up from a 50-cent-a-day mill hand to a textile millionaire, and finally, after having won election as governor of North Carolina, to be appointed as President Kennedy's Secretary of Commerce, is a "come-early, work-late" type man!
He said there are MILLIONS unemployed — but there are also thousands of concerns and businesses looking for people! "They can't find the people who are willing to give a full day's work!" he said.
Later, Mr. Hodges sternly warned, "We're going to have trouble ahead in international competition unless we're as efficient as possible!"
In past articles in The PLAIN TRUTH magazine, we have exposed, repeatedly, the tremendous TRADE WAR that is already furiously under way. We have shown time and again the increasing phlegmatism of the average American, British, Australian and Canadian worker — with the continual strikes, slow-downs, slipshod work, millions of man-hours eaten up in coffee and tea breaks, and the many horrible practices which threaten national disaster to our peoples.
In the meantime, a burgeoning union of nations is forging ahead, WORKING HARD to overtake us!
Lazy, indolent, FAT — bloated on our own prosperity, we seek only to sleepily and unconcernedly save what we have! But a VIGOROUS, hard-working enemy is soon going to TAKE from us what we have — unless we WAKE UP and get to WORK on the only goal there is!
Newsweek magazine conducted an opinion survey around the United States and found MANY in various professions who admitted the United States' workers are becoming "clock-watchers." A San Francisco attorney, Mr. James L. O'Dea, said, "Workers on the average just watch the clock all day so they can rush home and watch TV." "We're rotting at the core," said Mrs. Gwen Glove, Detroit secretary.
"The biggest threat to America is Americans." "The fellow who is really interested in his work," said an Atlanta merchant, "sticks out like a sore thumb." A lawyer, in Dallas, Texas, commented, "You'd better not be at our office at 5 o'clock — you will get run over!"
A San Francisco businessman said: "What is happening frightens me. I THINK WE ARE GOING TO DECLINE AND FALL JUST LIKE ROME DID!"
These alarming statements, made by average businessmen and businesswomen in average jobs state the case very clearly.
As PEOPLES, we are lazy, indolent, negligent, half-hearted in our efforts, and have forgotten, apparently, the true MEANING of hard work!
Little REAL Unemployment!
Unemployment — a growing problem among our peoples is NOT, believe it or not, the same kind of unemployment it used to be. Today, there is WILLFUL unemployment, there is deceitful unemployment, and there is misplaced prideful unemployment! There is LAZY unemployment — and, in some industries, there is seasonal unemployment, strike unemployment, and cutback unemployment.
But the day when hard-working, honest men who sincerely WANT to put in a GOOD DAY'S LABOR, working HARD to produce — and still can't find a job . . . those days — are simply not here as yet.
Actually, a glance at the classified ads in any newspaper will show clearly that there are PLENTY OF JOBS AVAILABLE!
But that's just it. There are JOBS available — and altogether too many people are looking for "positions."
What about YOU? Are YOU willing to really WORK? Are you willing to find a job — and WORK at that job — even if it means distasteful sweat, long hours, and perhaps meager pay? Or would your immediate come-back be, "Why should I do it — when so many others have a soft berth?"
Its time we shook ourselves out of our lethargy — and began to WAKE UP to our national, and our PERSONAL danger!
Its time to come to KNOW the true peril we face — and know what you, personally, should be doing about it! God says, "For when they shall say, 'Peace and safety'; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape! But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the DAY, we are not of the night, nor of darkness — therefore LET US NOT SLEEP, as do others, but let us watch and be sober!" (I Thess. 5:3-6).
Its time to WAKE UP — it's time to throw off the cloak of laziness and lethargy — it's time for HARD WORK!
A Message about WORK
The most well-balanced man who ever lived was Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus said He was sent to this earth to "work the works" of the Father, who had sent Him! (John 9:4). His message was concerned with ZEALOUS WORK!
Jesus Christ came to this earth to set us an example that we should follow in His steps (I Pet. 2:21). He lived an active, vigorous life — a life filled with ZEAL, with robust health, and live vitality!
It may come as a shock to you to realize you can DENY YOUR SAVIOR by laziness, alone.
God COMMANDS all human kind, "Six days shalt thou LABOR, and do all thy work" (Ex. 20:9). Remember, Jesus said, "If you love me, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS" (John 14:15). Today, false ministers preach a lazy salvation — an easy message about an indolent eternity, floating around negligently, apathetically and phlegmatically on a cloud in heaven! They deny there are any WORKS to salvation!
But Almighty God neither intends that you live a physical life in idleness, nor that you spend an eternity in laxity and ease!