It is a strange day! With food dehydrated, fast frozen, precooked, or ready to serve, the average housewife need spend only one quarter of the time in the kitchen that her mother did. With wash and wear and drip-dry materials, laundry takes a fraction of the time it formerly did. With jet engines, travel is reduced to a minimum. Yet with it all, people have never been so busy, never so rushed as they are today.
The norm seems to be more time for pleasure, more money for less toil, and as much profit as possible for as little energy expanded as possible. With the average wage increasing, savings accounts are increasing, and investment in stocks are soaring; and back of it all is an attempt to get a little more for less work.
The great tragedy is that this same attitude has spread over into spiritual work. Far too many born again men and women want all the blessing that comes from the Gospel but are very reluctant to assume the responsibilities. Overall giving to the church is less than one percent of income, and the shortage of Christian workers is desperate indeed, for we have long since ceased equating salvation with service.
Christians in America have never had it so good, have never been so well off, and yet there is every evidence that hoarding is the order of the day. Have we forgotten the incident in Moses’ day? In Exodus 16:19-20, we have the inevitable result of hoarding, “And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank… “
Every blessing from God is a responsibility. We have no right to receive the things of God without putting them to use, without working. A dying world is at stake. Let us not fail it by our selfish hoarding.