Oppressed by Sleep

(Proverbs 20:13 KJV)  Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.

If I had to pick out themes in Proverbs this would speak to one of them:  Causes of Poverty.  As Christians we are constantly bombarded with the idea that people are poor because of the greed of the rich and multinational companies.  Oppression by the powerful is the mind set of the day.  I will readily admit that the Bible speaks about oppression and taking advantage of the poor.  What our culture does not want to admit is that many people are poor because of their own decisions and actions.  That is almost totally true in the United States.  I was talking with some kind hearted Catholic friends.  They were concerned for the hungry in our country and how many children were starving.  Puzzled, I asked them what their church would do if someone came asking for food.  It did not take them long to admit that they would be given food.

Here the personal choice being warned about is refusing to get out of bed and be productive.  I can sympathize with this, or I used to.  When I was working as a teacher I had three months off in the summer.  I eventually made enough that I did not need to chase summer jobs.  It was very hard for me to start setting the alarm when school started again.  I half-seriously thought about going on welfare.

So?  Are you oppressed?  Maybe.  You may also just be sleeping too much.