day no. 17,054: beggers and choosers

Proverbs 20:4

The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; 

Therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.

Some excuses are more convenient than others, but none of them can cover the bill when it comes due. It may really be cold, but that fact won't warm you when the heating bill is due. If you beg your pardon during planting season you will have to beg from someone who did not. If everyone took advantage of the same excuses, there would be no one left to beg. Some people felt the cold, but plowed ahead in hope.

“Sometimes it might really be cold. Sometimes there are obstacles that the industrious experience as well, but they push through. For them, the glad fruition of harvest is on the other side of not giving up. Confronted with a genuine obstacle, the heart of the sluggard is greatly encouraged because he won’t have to come up with an excuse that was manifestly ridiculous. But as the proverb indicates, the one thing the excuse won’t be able to do is put food on the table when the time of harvest comes.” — Douglas Wilson, The Rubbery Bones of the Lazy

Men do not make excuses, they take responsibility. The sluggard looks for excuses. When they are easy to find, the lazy man rejoices for his work is made all the easier. But when the excuses are hard to come by, the ne'er-do-well works hard to find one. Thus, the lazy man demonstrates that he has the ability to do hard things, but only when they get him out of what he perceives to be harder things. He would rater be up all night working hard on an excuse than up early working hard at his assigned task.

Excuse farmers can squeeze blood from a turnip, but they can't draw responsibility from their bones. They hunt and gather plausible deniability like a skilled hunter and have no meat or clothing to show for all their efforts.