“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
Growing Dominion, Part 118
“Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread” (Prov. 20:13).
This kind of warning against laziness is common in Proverbs. And our response is too frequently to nod complacently, or roll our eyes, and say, “Yes, we know, we’ve heard it before.” It, like many clichés, is assumed to have become false over the years simply by being so obviously true.
We have to learn how to make the obvious more obvious, not less. For example, someone who gets to work by 7:30 am and finishes at 5:30 pm has a ten-hour day, to be distinguished from the typical eight-hour day. And his schedule is not exactly what we would call “crazy-nuts”—he still has plenty of time for a life. But what does that extra two hours do? Well, if we look at it from the vantage urged by Proverbs, it adds up. That extra two hours has become an extra ten hours a week, which in its turn becomes an extra 40 hour work week per month. This guy is working with five weeks in a month instead of four. And that extra week per month adds up to three extra productive work months a year. He is working with fifteen months, instead of twelve.
The same kind of thing happens (only with subtraction this time) if a fellow is dinking around with six hour days. Three weeks in a month, instead of four. Nine months in a year instead of twelve. But he still has plenty of time to glance enviously at the first fellow—”why does he manage to get so much done?