Slogging, Winnowing Forks, and Taking Responsibility

Meditations on Proverbs 20

Photo by Magdalena Kula Manchee on Unsplash

Slow and Steady

“An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning will not be blessed in the end.” Proverbs 20:21 (ESV)

Here is a principal that no person loves by nature: slow and steady wins the race. Though Solomon made the principle clear 3,000 years ago, and a thousand years later Jesus would vividly illustrate this principle in the parable of the two sons (Luke 15:11-32), we still want a get-rich-quick scheme that will solve all of our problems.

The problem with this line of thinking, of course, is that most (now hear me, dear bleeding heart: I said most) financial problems are not fundamentally financial. Rather, they are character problems, which work their way out in the procurement of and dealing with money.

Which is another way of saying, to quote my wife, “wherever you go, there you is.”

The reason the prodigal son was able to burn through a generous inheritance in a relatively short period of time is because he did not have the character to handle it wisely. You see a similar characteristic at play in the lottery. The lottery is a morally reprehensible and predatory device of governments to sell hope to their citizenry: and, of course, the portions of the population most likely to play the lotto/Powerball/etc. are generally the portions who can least afford to waste their money in such a fashion.

“But look at Lukas, who just won $3 million! His life was changed for the better!”, so says the proponent of the system. But we all know it hasn’t. After the government takes another hefty chunk of the money that this fellow has “won”, we all know that he isn’t going to use that pile of free money wisely.

We can take it out of the realm of something as obvious as the lotto and look at young athletes who are paid in the millions of dollars, and precious few have been raised to have the requisite wisdom to handle such funds wisely.

So what, Will?

The point of all this is to say: we are often caught thinking, “if only I had a financial windfall. That would take care of my troubles.” But such is certainly not the case for the vast majority of people. What is gained hastily at the beginning will not be blessed in the end.

Contrast that with diligent toil and labor. Earlier in this chapter, Solomon had said, “Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread” (v13). Do you need more bread? Open your eyes, get off the couch, get to work. Don’t spend tomorrow’s labor for today’s needs. Save slowly, over time, like the ant (Proverbs 6:6-11). This is part of what it means to trust in the Lord to provide your needs.

There is an old phrase, “pray as if all depends on God, work as if all depends on you.” That is fundamentally wrong-headed, and here’s why. The get-rich-quick scheme, the too-clever-by-half, I-have-a-trick-no-one-else-knows type of guy is exactly what it looks like to count on yourself. Working as if all depends on you will prevent you from the sort of diligence and generosity the Lord expects, and will deprive you of the rest you need. But if you diligently work hard for six days and trustingly rest on the seventh, what you are expressing is supreme confidence in the Lord’s faithfulness to his word. You are saying, okay, God, you made the world this way: I’m trusting you to provide if I walk in obedience to your precept and design. I’m trusting that, to borrow a phrase from Nietzsche by way of Peterson, a long obedience in the same direction pays off.

I’m not trusting in a financial windfall tomorrow. I’m trusting the Lord to sustain my labors and provide for my needs: today, tomorrow, and in his house forever (Psalm 23:6).