Create Rather Than Consume
We find ourselves in a unique new phase of existence. Our always-connected, always-on existence has created an effortless state of perpetual entertainment. But there is little to show for one’s life of entertainment. It is the creators – the producers – who better the world we are in and leave a legacy.
A slack hand causes poverty,
Proverbs 10:4
but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
But don’t creators need consumers? Of course they do. In fact, creators are among the greatest consumers, but the principle that leads to a life of plenty is simply this: create more than you consume. Fulfill the needs of others in addition to your own, and you will never know want.
“… aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.
I Thessalonians 4:11-12
Remember that no one knows how to make a pencil. Hundreds of producers from all over the world create each of the components that then feed into the process that results in a pencil. And so the producer of pencils is a great consumer of materials and parts (wooden shafts, yellow paint, rubber erasers, metal rings, graphite, …), but that consumption leads to production!