Proverbs 13:4 Life’s secret sauce
A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. Proverbs 13:4 NIV
Or New American Standard translates it, “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing.”
Appetite and need
Appetite refers to the desire for food or drink and also the need to satisfy both cravings of the body and also the soul. So why isn’t the sluggard satisfied? Because dreaming, thinking, lusting, or wanting something doesn’t do anything to help you experience it. Everyone wants and needs something. We are born to need. Even a baby will cry when he is hungry. I have an appetite for not only food but also for things which nourish my soul such as fellowship, creativity, adventure, and so many other things. But I must put willfulness and legs to my desire. There is a path to make it a reality, but I must take the first step. Wanting to have a fish dinner takes a different energy and thoughtfulness than wanting to be a radiologist, or an NFL linebacker, or a homeowner. In another vein the sluggard, true to the sluggard motto, will take the short cut. Whatever appears to be the easier way to get something, he’ll opt for it. That may include lying, cheating, listening to a blogger who convinces him that there is a simpler way (all the while earning marketing revenue for unsupported theories) and stepping on another to get where he wants to go. But there is an ecosystem to desire and its fulfillment that must be honored.
Contrasted with the sluggard is “the soul of the diligent.” Diligence, translated literally means: made fat, by extension being rich or enriched. Diligence is not just an activity to produce a result, but it’s the disposition in which to live. It’s the mind which seeks to differentiate which effort will work to satisfy my desire. That’s much different than simply putting in time at a task and and expecting the result arrive because of some sort of magic. If I go fishing and only stand in my boat, scanning the water while holding a net hoping a fish will jump into it, I’ll be waiting a long time. Sure, I’m out “fishing,” but the diligent understand that a hook with a tasty treat on the end of it, cast at the right time of day, during the right season and into the deeper water will yield a much better result.
Satisfaction
Man is born into need. From the moment of our birth we need something and the shrieks of the newborn are a reminder of how helpless we really are. Our relationship with need becomes much more complicated as we grow. It’s no longer just the basics such as food, clothing, and shelter, but then it’s safety. Then collaboration and interconnectedness. Then creativity and expression.
As an adult, being fed is no longer an accomplishment. Food is simply a part of my daily responsibility. It’s second nature — so I feel neither satisfaction or dissatisfaction. But the word “satisfied” speaks of something into which my soul is much more invested. The Hebrew is “dashen” meaning “to make fat.” When a person not only has food, but plenty of it, they may become fat. This is a good picture for the state of my soul. When an offering is made on the altar and it is consumed by fire, ascends as a sweet smell of a requirement being met… one is satisfied. Complete. It’s in this same context that human need is much more complex, and nuanced. When that need is met, there is a deep sense of satisfaction.
An example of this may be seen with a teen’s budding hormones. The hormones trigger a physical interest in the opposite sex. It feels like it happens overnight. Then the teen looks at the other sex with curiosity, interest, then desire — rather than the playful disdain feigned in grade-school years. Once I embark on that risky road to the opposite sex, I am exposed to a very uncomfortable zone of being vulnerable to a new relationship and the need for acceptance. I find that not only physically do I feel “right” but emotionally as well. That relationship with another creates a bond of mutual understanding, the ability to “be known” by another. It takes work, plenty of it for sure. But it is worth it. It is this sort of satisfaction that Solomon contrasts. For those who never make the effort they continue to exist only in this realm of inexplainable desire and need. What is worse is that these complex needs accumulate. They become an unspoken mountain of need, not just inter-relationally, but sexually, occupationally and financially. Even as far as the need to experience achievement itself — in something. Anything. Imagine the emotion of despair when these things go unmet in my life?
Satisfaction is a blessed state. Dissatisfaction becomes a vacuum into which my soul collapses. And the difference between them? My efforts at seeking the answer. My diligence. Paying attention to need. Listening to it when I’d rather sleep in. Being uncomfortable in the short term for a long term result. Owning my life, my story, my circumstances.
Hunger and need are not the enemies. They are the catalysts that speak to me. They provide opportunities. There is nothing more rewarding that concluding my day with the deep satisfaction that I have listened to the Holy Spirit and acted in love.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied.
Deuteronomy 6:4-11 NIV