The ways of the heart were many and the needs of the soul were legion.”
                    –Ralph Peters  (Valley of the Shadow)

       “Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”

Years are terrible things, an’ for years you’ve been bound. Habit of years is strong as life itself.”

He loved the smell of lonely campfires, the crisp feeling of awakening on a frosty morning.”

Easy money is the bane of a lazy man. I’ll work for my supper from here on.”
                    –Duane Boehm  (The Hunted)

       “How long will you slumber, O sluggard?  When will you rise from your sleep?”
                    –Proverbs 6:9 (NKJV)
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You’ve seen them, worked with them–the sluggards.  A sluggard is a person who is habitually lazy, one who does enough to barely get by.  Some of them know the tricks so when the boss comes by they seem to be working.  They make sure they are known in the conference room with at least one question along with a smirk on their lips.
     Sluggards are a drag to coworkers for they have to constantly be adding to their work to make up for his lack of it.  Sluggards are detrimental to the company as well as the workforce, yet they seem to always be around.  In plain speaking, sluggards do not pull their weight.  As a student I hated group work, for there were always the sluggards there waiting to sponge off the workers.
     But, hold on, wait a minute…perhaps we should stop and take inventory.  Are each one of us pulling their own weight?  Are we doing what we know we should be doing?  Are we a bystander, a spectator, or are we involved with our proper share of the workload?  The work has to be done; it is important that each of us are doing our rightful share.  Look at the workforce today, it is filled with lazy, good-for-nothing sluggards.  People who wander from one job or another because they are dissatisfied.  People who think they should start at the top and not pay their rightful dues.
     Let’s look at another individual closely related to a sluggard.  They may be one and the same for they share many of the same characteristics.  This is the person that Jesus decries as a shepherd.

               “But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.  The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.”
                         –John 10:12-13(NKJV)

A “hireling” is someone who has been hired to provide labor or some other service in return for money or some other materialistic benefit.  This is the person who hires on but leaves before the work’s done.  He is the one who goes about his duties and obligations with a ho hum attitude.  They do half a job and expect to be paid for a full day.  They could care less about the finished product, whether the job was done efficiently and to the best of their ability.  
     I’ve worked with my share of hirelings.  They work only for the paycheck; they could care less about the job, the boss, or the company.  They want the benefits without the sweat.  They don’t “work for the brand” but only for themselves, and they are the first to make excuses if the work’s not done right, or to cast blame.  Red Steagall wrote a great poem, “The Fence That Me and Shorty Built,” here are a couple of stanzas that show the possible sluggard or hireling.

               “Nobody but a fool would build
               A fence that isn’t straight.
               I got no use for someone who ain’t
               Pullin’ his own weight.

               If you’re not proud of what you do,
               You won’t amount to much.
               You’ll bounce around from job to job
               Just slightly out of touch.”

     As a Christian we are to work for the Lord and to the best of our ability.  We are not to just get by, for we are stewards of the time, the talents, and the job that the Lord has placed in our care.  Clement of Rome wrote, “He urges us to attend to our work with a whole heart so that we won’t be lazy in any good work.”  Let me leave you today with two questions that you must answer:  Are you pulling your weight in whatever endeavor you are involved in?  Who are you really working for?

               “If you’re going to quit anything,
                    quit being lazy,
                    quit making excuses,
                    and quit waiting for the right time.”