I (John) grew up on a farm in northern Alberta (Canada) and as we had livestock we all had chores to do every day. When I turned 12 years old I graduated from feeding the chickens and outside livestock to milking our cows. In the wintertime, we would have 3 cows in our small barn – one or two that were being milked and the other at some stage of the cycle. Each evening after I finished milking, I got to clean out the gutter – you know, the cows toilet – from that 24 hr cycle, usually one-two wheelbarrows full. My younger brother had the job of the chickens, feeding the livestock that was out in the corral and bringing in feed for the cows in the barn. Was it enjoyable? Not most of the time, but it did have its moments of laughter and interesting experiences (teenage boys always find a way to make things interesting).
We enjoyed the fruit of our labours – fresh milk, our own beef, our own chickens and fresh eggs. We learned that you don’t get the produce if you don’t put up with a bit of mess.
Life is like that. Solomon wrote in Proverbs 14:4 that “Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, But much revenue comes by the strength of the ox.” (NASB). No oxen in the barn means that there is no mess – but with the oxen you can get a lot done – like planting fields, hauling loads etc etc. Back in the day prior to mechanization, oxen were the equivalent of tractors and trucks.
I drove tour bus on the west coast the summer after I finished college. I enjoyed driving the big buses and the challenge it was maneuvering through the cities and driving on the freeways. I remember once jokingly telling a tour guide when asked if I enjoyed the job, “it would be great if it wasn’t for the tourists”. She of course reminded me that that was the whole point, that I was getting paid to drive tourists.
If you are going to do something – build, learn, work, start a business etc – it isn’t going to be perfect and pristine. There is going to be mess involved and its part of the process. If you focus on the mess, you don’t get far. If you focus on the “why” – why do you have the oxen (or the business, or the studies, or the relationship etc), then you can maintain perspective and move forward and deal with the inevitable messes that come along the way.
When things get difficult, boring or fuzzy, I remind myself why I am doing what I am doing, and what, Lord willing, will be the long term outcome. The “why” is what makes you do “the what” – including cleaning up the messes along the way.
