1.7. Two responses to lacking

1.7. Two responses to lacking Lacking may incentivize action, but it may also paralyze. For example, a lack of health may stimulate exercise and healthy eating habits, but it can also incite depression and resignation. Reaction to lack depends on one’s character, experience, and values. People can respond to the stimulus of lack by productive action or by pretension to possession. Productive efforts bring reward, while pretensions require fruit without making a productive effort. When people act, they unfold their potential through work and learning. In theology, work as a source of subsistence “is not only a curse brought on by sin, but a way to express one’s likeness of God” (Syssoev 2016: 169). When people respond to lack only as claim holders and consumers, they deprive themselves of an opportunity for self-development and fulfillment. Human development through work, learning, and other efforts is inseparable from the development of all creation.

Though limited and dependent, people are not separated from God, so their limitedness and dependence can become an intermediate position through which the Creator is united not only with humanity, but also with the whole creation (Syssoev 2016: 169).

The two responses to lack determine different approaches to freedom. If people respond to lack through productive effort, freedom is about liberty to act and to fulfill oneself. If people choose to handle lack through pretension, freedom is seen as a social entitlement without an effort, usually at the expense of others. Indeed, realizing freedom and properly responding to lack is only possible through learning, creativity, and daily service to others. “Liberation” from this is tantamount to the abolition of liberty, to reducing man to the status of creature that is fully provided for.