Only When The Ox Is In The Mire

We all find ourselves in situations when it feels justified to do or not do something that we would normally do, because the circumstance we are in justifies it. There are indeed such circumstances. But what if those circumstances are a unique and perhaps the only real opportunities to show the Lord that we are not fair-weather friends...

Transcript

Only when the ox is in the mire

Welcome to the Verbal Motivation podcast. Where we talk about the things that motivate our lives, our religion and our relationships. My name is Nathan Vail. If you would like to comment on this or other episodes, please leave me a voicemail at 530-876-4153 or you can send an email to verbalmotivation@gmail.com. 

This is episode number 14 called only when the ox is in the mire

The oft quoted phrase “when the ox is in the mire” refers to a situation when we feel justified in breaking or bending the rules because of the circumstance we are in. 

But, what if when the “ox is in the meyer,” we are provided with a unique and perhaps the only real opportunity to show the Lord that we are willing to obey, specifically because we are justified in not doing something?

To be clear, I am not saying that there aren’t situations that justify doing things differently. I am just saying that there may be a unique opportunity there, to show the Lord that we are not just fair weather friends. 

Amos chapter 9: verse 9 says “...I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.”

Have you ever asked yourself, how would the Lord,in a practical sense, sift the wicked from the righteous? I have never heard of a city being built for only the righteous or the wicked being diverted to another area to live. That is because the sifting, at this point at least, is not physical. I think it’s more of a separation in our personal progress. The way a race car driver slowly works his or her way up to the front of the race. I believe that trials or the circumstances of our lives is the sieve referred to in that scripture. How we act when our ox is in the mire during a trial empowers us and enables us, in a spiritual sense, to move ahead in our individual race against our own nature. 

I love the movie A Knight's Tale. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a movie about a peasant who becomes a knight. There is an interesting and profound scene where the knights are all going to a jousting tournament and as the parade of horses and athletes work their way past the stands, full of cheering onlookers, every armored knight pauses in front of a particularly beautiful woman named Joslyn and says to her, “my lady, I will win this tournament for you.” Even though this jester should flatter her,  it actually annoys her instead. Because she knows they are doing it for themselves and this fau jester has nothing to do with love for her. In the next scene when the most talented of the knights meets Joslyn in a church he asks, “How may I prove my love to you?” She responds with “If you ask in earnest, you would prove your love to me by losing.” When the knight hears that he can’t believe his ears because, he is the most talented of all and he is poised to win the tournament. He responds with anger saying, “losing proves nothing except that I am a loser.” To which Joslyn profoundly says, “Instead of winning to honor me with your high reputation, I want you to act against your normal character and do badly. Losing is a much keener test of your love. Losing would contradict your self love…”

Because winning is what he would do with or without her, it doesn’t prove anything. But losing he would only do for her and so it demonstrates his love.

Of course I’m not condoning the idea of intentional losing in life. But this exchange perfectly illustrates how the “natural man is an enemy to God.” It is only when we act against our natural character that we demonstrate our love for him.

If that is true, we need to embrace the idea that the challenges we face are opportunities to act against our natural character and are the very purpose for which we have come. In this way, the circumstances of our lives become that sive that separates from the wicked.

Sacrifice can only be self imposed. We can be made to endure a trial or a hard time, but that is not the same as sacrifice.

D and C 121:8 “And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high…” 

It’s all about how we endure our trials. When we endure it well, it’s like a chemical change in a spiritual sense. Because we become different as a result. We become more holy and have greater ability to endure more.

Even Jesus had to give himself willingly and by choice. It was that willingness that validated his sacrifice for us. 

This is a concept that is not hard to explain, but in actual application, it can be very difficult to understand how a loving God could allow those who love him, to suffer.

I flew to Washington many years ago to attend the funeral of my nephew. As I sat behind my brother and sister in law, listened to them cry silently for the loss of their young child, I couldn’t control my own tears. 

I was asked to say the closing prayer at that service, but as I stood before the crowded room, I was unable to speak. The tragedy of that moment was unbearable. 

Yet, my brother and his wife remained faithful members of the Church. 

I feel like when I say that I believe, it could never mean as much as when they say they believe. Because they withstood the fires of sacrifice and endured it well. The scriptural definition of sanctification.

1 Peter 1:7 says, “…The trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold…”

I used to think unshakable faith referred to the ability to move mountains, as Enoch did. But now I know the greatest faith is when the mountain doesn’t move and you believe anyway. 

A few years ago, some friends and I were at a work conference at an extremely expensive restaurant. The kind of restaurant that requires a specific dress code. This dinner was a fascinating experience because my friends ordered a meal that had many small courses and it had a wine paired with each individual course that matched the food. All evening each wine was presented with a detailed explanation of it’s heritage; things like what type of grape, where it was grown, what age the vine was at the time of harvest, what type of barrel it was stored in and for how long, what type of soil it was grown in, what years there was bad weather in relation to it’s harvest. They had a better genealogy of each of those wines than I do of my ancestors. But the thing that was the most fascinating and the reason I am talking about this, is because apparently when a grape vine struggles to survive, they redirect their energy into producing smaller grape clusters with more concentrated flavors and aromas. In other words, when you want good wine, you grow the grapes in a place where they have to struggle. 

How profound and how similar that is to life. 

Elder David A. Bednar explained, “My primary responsibility as a teacher was to help students learn how to learn for themselves…periodic tests absolutely are essential to learning. An effective test helps us to compare what we need to know with what we actually know…”

D and C c 101:4-5 says, “Therefore, they must needs be chastened and tried, even as Abraham, who was commanded to offer up his only son. For all those who will not endure chastening, but deny me, cannot be sanctified.”

But the trials of life are not all in the form of difficulty. 

The Raphus cucullatus, commonly known as the Dodo bird, was a flightless bird native to the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.

Flightlessness in birds typically evolves in environments where there is an absence of significant predators, ample resources, and where flight isn't necessary for survival. In Mauritius, the dodo likely evolved from birds that could fly but lost that ability over generations due to the lack of threats.

Flight requires certain adaptations in birds, including lightweight bones, powerful flight muscles, and streamlined bodies. 

None of that mattered to the dodo  until European sailors arrived on Mauritius in the late 16th century, they brought with them invasive species like rats, pigs, and monkeys. The Dodo Bird was fat and unchallenged and went extinct in just over half a century.  

Similarly, without the challenges of this life, we would have no opportunity to develop the strong bones of faith, muscles of resistance, and streamlined bodies of obedience…all of which develop through the challenges in life. Without which, we run the risk of becoming easy prey for the adversary.

Every parent knows that if you give a child too much, it is counter productive to their development. 

Abraham Lincoln has been attributed with the saying, “…if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

This is what I used to call the Paris Hilton syndrome. You may remember in the early 2000’s an attractive young lady named Paris Hilton, she was the billion dollar heiress of the Hilton hotel fortune, who was photographed at nightclubs and lavish parties flaunting her wealth for all to see. According to an article Amy Lamare Paris Hilton was instrumental in the birth and development of the celebutante era – that is, people who are famous for being famous, not for any accomplishment or being productive members of society. While the tabloids and gossip websites were eating up every move Paris made, so was someone else – her grandfather, Barron Hilton . Before 2007, Barron was set to leave his $4.5 billion fortune to his family. Until Paris embarrassed him, with her antics and sex tapes, so badly that he changed his mind and left his fortune to charity.

We also stand to inherit all that our father hath (Luke 15:21). We also live in a world where there are many opportunities to live in lavish lifestyles or indulge in self pleasures rather than self sacrifice. But the dodo bird lifestyle is the functional equivalent of not enduring well. And will be just as tragic in our development as children of God, because our actions in good times will also determine our inheritance in the next life.  

But, righteousness itself does not protect us from trials. In fact, 

John 15:2 says, “every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”

Just before I was to start high school my parents announced that my father had been transferred by his employer and we were moving to North Carolina. So we sold our house and packed up our belongings. An enormous semi-truck and a driver with a thick southern accent arrived to transport our belongings to a storage unit in a small town, just outside of Winston-Salem. After a long trip, I watched with admiration as the skilled driver negotiated the long trailer into a storage unit. But, before we had even finished unloading, my dad drove up and with a solemn face, that I’ll never forget, announced that the company he worked for had gone bankrupt and his whole office had been laid off. He had no job.

There was a recession going on at the time and finding a new job turned out to be harder than anticipated. I remember overhearing several painful conversations between my mother and my father about jobs and money. But I never heard them complain. 

Eventually I was allowed to get a high school job and I gave the meager checks to my mom. 

After almost exactly two years of struggling in vain, we left that beautiful country. It’s ironic really, we moved out there in a semi truck and left in a uhaul. 

This story is only interesting, because my dad is something of a missionary. Everywhere he goes he talks about the gospel with every stranger that crosses his path. During those two years of great family struggle, my dad converted and baptized more than a dozen people. An admirable feat under any circumstances. But the fact that he did it while in the throes of what must have been one of the most difficult times in my parents lives, means almost as much as the accomplishment itself.

It is only now as an adult, that I understand that when the widow's mite is cast into the treasury, it is the difficulty of circumstance that sanctifies the sacrifice and provides a unique opportunity to show the Lord that we are not fairweather friends……and…..thereby the wicked are sifted from the righteous.

This life is real. Sometimes it’s too real. 

But it is only those who struggle and stay strong that can say, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith…” 2 Timothy 4:7