Oxen and Computers

"Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean,

but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox."

Proverbs 14: 4

Today we get to celebrate a great milestone in our household.  We bought a new computer!  This is not a common event as both my wife and I buy quality and then use it until it won't work anymore.  Unfortunately, our computer was coming to the place where it would not work anymore.  Slowly but surely, our processor was dying a horrible, slow death.  

We had bought our computer almost seven years ago, and it has seen so much use by all of us in the family, but particularly by my 16 year old son.  About two months ago, we started to smell smoke when we turned the computer on.  I thought perhaps it was dust, so I cleaned it.  It was not dust or dirt.  It was the end of the line.

I found that seemingly simple processes like forwarding e-mails or downloading webpages became marathon operations.  In fact, one post this week was deleted because the computer stopped working!  For the past couple of months, programs that have always been stable would crash in the midst of operations.  Why?  The death of an old computer.

While I hate to spend money, it was time!  Yesterday we headed to Portland and the closest Apple store.  I am now the happy owner of a 27 inch, crystal clear, blazingly fast ox!

In the above Proverb, Solomon is making an observation about life.  We might dismiss it as irrelevant if we are not careful.  Solomon makes a simple observation about oxen: oxen leave evidence of their presence.  This evidence must be picked up.  It is smelly and difficult work.  Yet, if you wish to have abundant crops, the strength of an ox for plowing and harvesting is a huge plus.

What does this mean?  Labor is needed to provide for the means of gaining further labor.  To have a strong ox, we must take care of the needs of our ox.

In today's age, to have a car to take us to work or a computer to do our work, we must labor to provide the money to buy these modern "oxen".  We have to work to "clean the manger" and it might be dirty and difficult.  Yet, if we labor, we enjoy the benefits of reliable transportation and easy computing power.  Having these modern oxen allow us to be more productive than we could be without them.

In today's culture, this message is often misunderstood.  Instead of laboring to achieve the means of buying modern oxen, many buy on credit.  Somehow they have misunderstood that credit means getting something now in promise of future labor.  You still must labor!

Even worse, we have many today who do not wish to "clean the manger" so they do not have.  They blame others, bemoan their fate, and declare it unfair that others have what they do not have.  Some demand that others give them cars, computers, and other modern oxen to make it fair.

To this I ask, is it "fair" to rob the worker to pay for those who refuse to work?  In any culture, does everyone "deserve" an ox?  I would think it is obvious that the answer is no!  Yet, in today's world many argue the opposite.

I am thankful for a new computer.  I do pray that this modern ox will allow me to be more productive than I could imagine.  I am also thankful that I literally had to keep the manger clean to pay for this computer!  I paid for it with the proceeds of several years of taking care of cattle and finally selling these cattle.  Such labor makes the enjoyment even more sweet!