6 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.
Idleness is not something new. There have always been those with the ability to work, but who don’t. Early in the last century people weren’t idle. If they wanted to eat something they would go and volunteer to do something in exchange for a meal. They valued themselves enough to see the value in work. Work is not about the external value that others place on the effort, but on our own internal value of ourselves. When we place enough value on ourselves that we don’t want to be idle. We want to be productive. We will do anything in order to be productive at something. In these current days of 10% unemployment, this can be very difficult. Those who lost their previous jobs, now have to struggle not only with paying the bills, but with valuing themselves. We so often tie our personal value to the job that we perform, whether inside or outside the home. And when we seem to be failing at either, we lose our sense of value in our own eyes. Others might still see the value, but our eyes get blinded to that value. The pin gets put into the balloon and all our self worth gets let out. And when we can’t find a comparable job to our previous job, we think we are not worth as much as we were before. It is at these moments when we must live up to our value, the value God places on us. If we are idle, we are not living in line with the value God places on us. We are instead reflecting the world’s value of us. If you are idle, go do something, anything. Beautify your neighborhood by picking up all the trash. Volunteer to do someone’s yard work for them. Find the widow and just help her out. Do it for free, but don’t be idle. Add value to your community, and you will be recognizing the value that the Lord has in you.
The Arnold Journey 