Wayne Weekly “Work Hard…Until the Cows Come Home”

Mike Dwinell, Mars Hill Chief Engineer, and I last week took a trip up to the town of Gouverneur to make some upgrades to our translator station located just outside of town.

A good portion of our repeater stations are “off the beaten path”, or at least operating from what some would think is an unusual broadcast location. Our Gouverneur facility is located on a farm, a dairy farm. The translator equipment is housed in a shed alongside of the milk house. The tower runs up alongside and above a concrete silo. Who would think that their Mars Hill Christian radio station from Syracuse takes a stop at a dairy farm before reaching their radio!!!

While Mike was working on a satellite dish to be used to receive a clean signal from our main facility in Syracuse, I noticed that the cows had moved from an upper pasture to one close to the barn. I enjoyed watching them eating and chewing their cud, enjoying the sunshine and slight breeze. Their tails were busy shooing away insects, but cow’s tails are on auto pilot, so no real conscious effort exerted by them…nice. Just then Farmer Jay arrived at the fence gate with a tractor wagon full of hay. Hay is made of dried grass and alfalfa, a real cow staple. He jumped off his tractor, unlatched the gate, climbed back onto his powerhouse and “rode the load” past the gateway. After closing the gate behind him, he proceeded to drive on the well-worn tractor wheel path created over time from countless mobile farm chores, and out into the pasture.

Most of the cows paid little attention as they were busy with supper, except one grazing near the gate.  “Bessy” took notice of the situation and with rapt attention made her way to the back of the hay wagon. She then began to nibble on what must have seemed like an endless supply of deliciousness. As the tractor began to move pulling the wagon, that happy beast trailed the glorious food supply chomping as fast as she followed along. Alas, the easy access to the delicious food supply soon became more of a task. It began to take work to keep up with the tasty feast. Bessy soon decided that working for the excellent may not be worth the energy. Abandoning the mission the poor cow retreated back to grazing off the field.

I laughed out loud as I witnessed this. Later, as I thought about what I had seen, a thought occurred to me.

As Christians, we oft times choose to chase after things that are good to the taste. But as we nibble, and experience the goodness, it may take more and more work to keep up with the abundant supply of blessing. When that which is good becomes work, we decide to go back to a less nourishing diet.

I’m guilty of this at times, perhaps you are too. I’m eager to eat the good stuff when the pickins’ are easy. But when it takes work and discipline to maintain a better spiritual diet, it can become easy to fall back into a less vitamin charged diet, retreating to food at ground level.

Perseverance is needed. Discipline is a must. Commitment is necessary. It takes work to eat well and grow in maturity as a follower of Christ.

“Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.”                                                                                               2 Timothy 2:15 NLT