Who is Juan Tamad? He is a character in Philippine folklore known for his laziness. Many stories portray his laziness to extreme stupidity and comedy. The most famous tale is one where he chances upon a guava tree laden with ripe fruit. Being too lazy to climb, he lies down under the tree and waits for the guava to fall into his mouth, waiting until kingdom come with his mouth wide open. Another story is about Juan Tamad and the crabs. He is instructed by his mother to purchase crabs at the nearby market. Again, being too lazy to carry them, he sets the crabs free, telling them to follow him home. It does not pay to be lazy. In the Bible, many proverbs also teach diligence and industry.
Proverbs 24
30 I went past the field of a sluggard,
past the vineyard of someone who has no sense;
31 thorns had come up everywhere,
the ground was covered with weeds,
and the stone wall was in ruins.
32 I applied my heart to what I observed
and learned a lesson from what I saw:
33 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest—
34 and poverty will come on you like a thief
and scarcity like an armed man.
While it is true that laziness can lead to poverty, not all poor people are poor because they are lazy. The sad reality of life is that there is no equity on material wealth on earth. The gap between the poor and the rich is perhaps becoming bigger and bigger. Yet this is not to say that one should just throw in the towel and give up on work.
Work is something God ordained for man to do since the beginning of time. God assigned Adam to name the animals he created. Adam was tasked to rule the earth and subdue it. God worked in creation and He is still working through mankind. Today, even in the pandemic or storms and wars of life, work does not stop. In fact, many are working hard to make things work in the new normal. Whether new ways of making products, new methods of marketing these things, new vaccines to discover, new ways to keep safe and stay healthy and not get sick… keep a clean habit – eat heathy, stay fit in body, mind and spirit.
Bottomline: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little bit of doing nothing to be careful and attentive, poverty and scarcity (infection, sickness, death) do come upon us.. perhaps even more so in such a time as this.
