If you work hard, and become successful, it does not
necessarily mean you are successful because you worked hard, just as if you are
tall with long hair it doesn’t mean you would be a midget if you were bald. –
Lemony Snicket
Blessings at times come to us through our
labors and at times without our labors, but never because of our labors, for
God always gives them because of His undeserved mercy. – Martin Luther
Based on some of the reactions I received when I posted the
Lemony Snicket quote on my Facebook page, I imagine many of those who read this
will cringe a bit at the proposition that success is not always contingent on
hard work, and that hard work does not always breed success.
If the latter were the case, African women
would be the richest people on the planet, but alas they are not (yes, I stole
that from a friend’s Facebook post).
The
Lemony Snicket quote originated in an online post from the character Lemony
Snicket/author Daniel Handler entitled, “
Thirteen Observations made by LemonySnicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance.”
He makes several keen observations in relation to the Occupy Wall Street protesters.
Much of the post resonated with me,
particularly the quotation above.
I tend
to be an intuitive thinker, so sometimes it takes me awhile to digest an idea
or thought.
In relation to the quotation
something about it seemed to “line up” with ideas I already owned and
believed.
It wasn’t until I heard the
second quote from Luther that it occurred to me why.
Luther essentially says something very
similar to Handler (though 500 years earlier), while simultaneously recognizing
the Divine source/principal behind why this is the case, the reason why being
grace.
This of course means that both express, in varied measure, something of
Divine truth.
To draw this out a bit, a
bit of scripture may be helpful.
Some of
the core of the truth of both of these quotations can be found in Jesus’
Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard in the beginning of
Matthew 20.
In the parable a vineyard owner hires workers for his
vineyard very early in the morning and agrees to pay them a days wage for a
days work. Later in the morning he
decides he needs more workers and so hires more agreeing to pay them
fairly. He does the same at about noon,
3, and 5. At the end of the day all the
workers, those hired at 5 and those hired first thing in the morning, are paid
a full day’s wage, which of course raises the hackles of those who had actually
worked all day. When presented with the
protests of unfairness, the vineyard owner replies, “I am not being unfair to
you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I
want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have
the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am
generous?” (NIV) Jesus begins this
parable by suggesting that what follows is a metaphor for the Kingdom of heaven,
and ends the story by suggesting that in the story we see a dramatic rendering
of the free and gracious application of the landowner’s (God the Father’s)
generosity. Many will grasp onto the
spiritual application of this and it’s relation to salvation, but many miss the
principals in play in the here and now.
God has the freedom to bless whomever God wants to bless through
whatever means God chooses. If God
chooses to bless the lazy with “success” (however you might choose to define
it) that is entirely God’s prerogative.
If God chooses to bless hard work, that’s God’s prerogative. One of the truths being fleshed out in the
story is that blessings are always from God. No matter how much sweat equity
we’ve invested into any given project, we cannot claim the fruit of that
labor. The fruit is always God’s to
give.
Now this is no argument against hard work, or for inaction
while awaiting a blessing from God. In
fact all of this is a merely the infrastructural support for the point I really
want to touch on, which is that both the Lemony Snicket quote and the Martin
Luther quote reference the same Biblical truth; perhaps one more intentionally
than the other (Handler describes himself as a Secular Humanist), but the
viewpoint of any author, or speaker doesn’t change the truth of what they convey. Neither the person speaking or writing, nor
the intent of the person speaking or writing ever changes the truth of what is
said or written. The point, to quote the
great theologian Madonna, is that “truth is where you find it.”
Because of (what I believe to be) the accuracy of this
truism, truth isn’t always easily recognizable.
It’s often dressed shabbily, and associates with those of ill
repute. I believe we would benefit
greatly if we were able to develop the ability to recognize truth in whatever
form it presents itself. Not only would
we benefit personally, particularly if that recognition lead to meaningful,
Christ-like action, but we would benefit those around us as we were able to
recognize God at work in the culture at large and come join in that Divine
labor. Perhaps a good place to start is
to take that song, movie, book, television show, or viral video back to
scripture to find out where it resonates, and what it shares in common as a
first instinct. You might be surprised
at where you might find God already at work in the culture around us.
