Daily Butter 7/6: But whom?

Okay a slight departure this morning. Though I agree with the challenge in today’s Our Daily Bread to touch others lives, I have another idea tugging at my thoughts. It is actually noted in the same chapter as the ODB focus passage:

Carry one another's burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. …
For each person will have to carry his own load. (Galatians 6: 2, 5 HCSB)

This balance is a tough concept. I know I am not alone in thinking the United States of America has become a great nation because of our foundation of independence (that I must pull my own weight) with a healthy understanding that we also need to assist one another. Unfortunately, we seem to be losing a bit of that “Do It Yourself” motivation. Along with the reminder that ”whatever a man sows he will also reap” from verse 7, my thoughts were fueled by a podcast I listened to tonight from Prometheus Radio Theatre that was posted on Independence Day. Steven H. Wilson, lamenting the fact that his teenage sons did not understand when he made reference to “The Little Red Hen,” read this classic story of self-reliance as a reminder. (Text is available at Project Gutenberg with his reading available here.) Feel free to refresh your own memory.

I have some people say to me that they respect me for working as much as I do and many who just shake their heads saying they don’t know how I do it. Well, I really don’t know some times either. I do it because I made mistakes that left me with debts that need repaid. I do it because I was raised to take responsibility and repay my debts. I do it because, on top of those debts, I have a family, and I WILL keep my word to my wife that she could be a full-time mother to our son. I jokingly said yesterday that I blame her for our son’s good behavior, but I do mean that – the cost of a bit of exhaustion on my part so that he can have that stability at home is small price in light of the priceless result.

Now if anyone does not provide for his own relatives, and especially for his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8 HCSB)

I can’t expect everyone to share my values or viewpoint, but I feel a sense of sorrow that we have come so far from the heritage of hard work that built this nation. I fear that we’ve also come so far from our agrarian roots that “reaping what you sow” might start getting the dumb-founded “whachutalkin bout?” looks instead of the eyes-to-the-floor “I know, I know” headshakes I gave my parents.

Andy Jentes