idle

“The vacuum is not empty. It may sound like magic to laypeople, but the problem has preoccupied physicists since the birth of quantum mechanics. The apparent void bubbles incessantly and produces fluctuations of light even at absolute zero temperature. In a sense, these virtual photons are just waiting to be used. They can carry forces and change the properties of matter.” – https://phys.org/news/2018-12-vacuum.html

If we say this another way, “Even in the complete absence of everything there is not only the potential for work to be done but, in fact, work (e.g., the affecting of forces and properties of matter) is continually performed.”

Now, let’s look at Christ’s parable of the “Workers in the Vineyard.”
Matthew 20:1,6-7
1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’
7 They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’

The landowner saw a potential that no one else saw. These workers had been standing idle all day, but no one hired them; no one saw their worth. But the landowner saw these unemployed workers as valuable. He believed they could do the work that needed to be performed.

Our eyes and our understanding get us in more trouble than anything other than our tongues. God told us to “…lean not on your own understanding;” (Pr. 3:5), yet still we do.

It is so very easy to miss read the value to God’s kingdom when we use our understanding to evaluate people and situations. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6)

Photo by Dimitar Belchev on Unsplash