Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.
~Proverbs 13.11
More. Faster. These two words, especially together, could very well be the tagline for modern Western society. Companies from casinos to Amazon play on our impatience, our insatiable desires to have more at an ever-increasing pace; to have more and have it easier than ever before. Entertainment has also picked up on our boredom with the mundane, repetitive rhythms of life, our impatience with “sameness,” and seeks to titillate us with bigger and more provocative technological wizardry. It is tempting and quite easy to fall into the frenzy of the bigger-faster-more society that feeds our impatient need for novelty and wealth without work.
Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing evil about wealth. Throughout the Scriptures and particularly in Proverbs God promises wealth to the wise. Wealth is nothing more than the fruit of dominion. God commissioned us to be world-builders, to create and cultivate the earth so that it teems with all sorts of life. This fruitfulness, in all of its forms, is wealth. God wants us to be wealthy, and we will be, even if we have to wait until after the resurrection.
For wealth to be sustained, it must be substantial; that is, it must have good foundations and qualities that will last. The proverb quoted above says that there is a difference between wealth gained in a “vaporous” way (translated “hastily”) and wealth gained little by little, or, more literally, “hand by hand.” Wealth gained vaporously is wealth that is tied up in that which will pass away. This wealth is tied to a person who is not interested in taking the time and effort to build that which will endure; his character, his reputation, a solid business, a life that is passed on to the next generation. He accumulates to consume. He wants more quickly.
This is contrasted to the man who gathers little by little. He is patient. He is diligent, ever plodding and persevering in the daily grind of doing the next right thing. He is content with his daily work. This man is investing his life in that which will last. He is not interested in vapor. He wants substantive wealth, and that only comes little by little.
Solomon is reflecting a principle that God himself employed with Israel when he promised them that they would inherit the Promised Land through conquest. He told them that he would not drive out the inhabits of the land all at once, but he would do it little by little so wild beasts would not take over (Ex 23.30; Dt 7.22). Handing Israel all of the land at once would be like handing your toddler the keys to the car: they wouldn’t be able to handle the responsibility. They need time to grow into that much responsibility.
Your Christian life is a little-by-little process. There are times in which we have “spikes” in our growth; some flash of new insight that moves us forward fairly quickly, especially when we are younger. But most of the Christian life is a little-by-little process. There are people, however, who always look for the silver bullet, the “key” to rise above this problem or that problem and finally gain victory over this so that they don’t have to deal with that anymore. These are the get-rich-quick Christians, always buying the new books and going to the conferences that will fix them. They want to get out of debt, but they don’t want to go through the discipline of denying themselves the things that they want. They want to have good marriages, so they look for some pearl of wisdom that will also be the panacea for all of their troubles so that they don’t have to work day by day and year by year. They want to overcome this particular sin that besets them, a constant nag and thorn in the flesh, so they look for someone to deliver them of a demon or give them a formula that will solve their problem. These get-rich-quick Christians run from guru to guru, wasting their time and energy looking for the answer instead of investing their energy in getting up and doing the boring, mundane disciplines of daily warfare with the flesh.
There is no get-rich-quick scheme for the Christian life. Not even God created wealth in an instant. He gave us the pattern. He worked for six days. He took time, developing creation little by little (at least little by little to him!). He calls us to participate in that pattern.
Through our little-by-little work, diligently engaging in the daily disciplines of life, we make progress. It is not progress that can always be measured in a day or week. Sometimes we have to look over large swathes of time. How has your life changed over the last 5, 10, or 20 years?
Wisdom is patient, persevering through all the mundane activities, gathering wealth handful by handful instead of truckload by truckload. Be patient with the little by little process. God promises that it pays off in the end.
