“make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of those who are not Christians, and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”
Writing to a group of Christians living in the city of Thessalonica, located in the region of Thessaly, north of Athens, Paul seems to be speaking to the USA today. Perhaps social media has done it to all of us, but it seems as if we have decided that every issue, every moment, every picture, every thing needs our commentary.
Worse, I think, is that it feels as if you can’t risk looking anyone in the eye today lest you get earful. Giving someone a “piece of my mind” has perhaps left us all as mindless folks…though none of us will ever admit that. We, of course, are always wise, always insightful and always correct in all we say and do. Well, we try….at least I think most of my friends try. But perhaps if we would simply follow Paul’s advice and “mind our own business” doing our own work that is in front of us, some calm might return to the country.
Lastly, maybe in the most deep commentary, we have become a nation of dependent people. And it’s all of us…not just the poor on welfare or rich people taking tax breaks. From Social Security to healthcare with education, fire-fighting and trash collection, we all simply, to some degree, sit around and wait, expect, the “government to take care of that.” No, I don’t want to be a volunteer fire fighter…and I so appreciate our city police, EMT and fire protection…those women and men are my heroes. BUT, we might just be a better society if we no longer could be dependent on them, and knew that we had to help each other.
Good advice for us all.