Be Sure To Feed Your Oxen — Warrior+Priest

“Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.”
- Proverbs 14:4

To work the ground, to plow the fields, to reap a harvest, you need oxen.

To have oxen, you must keep them; you must house and feed them. You cannot skimp on their nutrition or cut corners on their care without weakening them for their work.

To be a farmer, you must be a husbandman. To build a business of growing and selling crops, you must equip yourself with the knowledge of taking care of your animals.

Getting to work is always accompanied by a certain amount of rather disagreeable necessities. There are always things in addition to the work itself that need to be attended to in order to truly do the work well.

Nobody opens a business in order to keep the books. But keeping the books is a vital part of running a business. Doing the work requires doing a bunch of other things other than the work. Physical fitness is achieved not simply by working out, but through proper nutrition and rest, as well. Championships are won by studying film and not just practice on the field.

Contemplation is an important part of the Christian life. But contemplation without action is never the call God makes on a man’s life. And action is messy. Done right, it will require dedication, consistency, resilience, balance, endurance, doggedness and a willingness to fail. It will require feeding the oxen before you harvest the crops.

The wise man resists the temptation to obsession by taking the time and spending the energy on the secondary matters. By doing so, he comes to realize that the secondary matters are not really secondary at all, but an integral part of the goal.

He also resists the temptation to laziness by embracing the reality that part of achieving his goal will be investment in things he’d rather not do. This is true not just of his business, but of his family and faith, as well.

As Matthew Henry wrote in his commentary on Proverbs 14:4, “There can be no advantage without something which, though of little moment, will affright the indolent.” The things that seem to be on their surface insignificant, distracting or pointless often end up being the things that enable you to truly win.

When you feel like you’ve lost ground because you had to spend an entire day working on something that needed to be done but felt like a distraction from your ultimate goal, remember: the time spent feeding the oxen and cleaning up after them is indeed time *not* spent harvesting or selling the crops. But it is nonetheless essential.

Good men are well-rounded men. Not masters of everything they do, but competent enough to understand that a successful life contains plenty of time spent doing things we’d rather not do. Doing those things well makes a universe of difference.