I am an Ox!!!!!!

I am taking a class on Financial Planning. Its web-based discussion and one of this weeks topics is Retirement. How should Christians view the idea of retirement? Retirement as we see it here on earth is an end period in our lives when we get to abandon the burden of work for "greener pastures." In my posts I couldn't help but keep going back to the verse where Jesus proclaims, "take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for my burden is lite..." and reference it in light of the idea that if we are working for the Lord, then our retirement is the time when He calls us home. So, what is a yoke? What is it used for? who typically "takes one up"? and what is the difference between Jesus' yoke and any other yoke?

First off, I think there is a grand misconception about taking up any yoke. A common response to this verse is one of "why would I take up any yoke?" Which is a good question, if it were an option. A yoke is a tool used to lead and control a beast of burden.

In another class I took, we talked about values. What are values? They are the things, ideas, concepts, we use to guide our decisions. If you value money, it will be the measure by which you make decisions considering what you do and how you do it. Should I tithe? It will cost me a good amount of money. I value money, therefore I may not want to tithe. I value generosity. Should I tithe? Tithing is giving and being generous with what I have, then I will most likely tithe. I value obedience. Should I tithe? The Lord commands it of us, then I will tithe, regardless. The way I place priority on my values will determine which of those values wins out and guides my actions and decisions. All of this to point out that our value systems are our yokes. They are what guide us and lead us. It is also to point out that we all have them. Carrying a yoke is not a choice, it is a fact of life. We all have value systems, we all have yokes. Thus, asking the question, "why would I even take up a yoke, any yoke?" is only a valid question if we had the option to do so.

Thus, Jesus is not asking us to constrain ourselves to a life of servitude and burden barring. We are already doing that. He is simply offering us a lighter burden. Its not a matter of carrying a yoke or not but, its a matter of who's yoke are you carrying? More important, who is pulling at the reigns and guiding our steps?

I have gotten the impression that many of us feel and believe that our families, our jobs, the loans we carry...all of the burdens of life are the yokes placed upon us. I happily contest this idea. My family is not what guides me down any given path. There is an underlying value that drives me to care for my family but, they are not the yoke around my neck. My job may be a burden or a blessing but, it is not what causes me to make the decisions that I make. There is once again an underlying value, priority, that drives me to make decisions concerning my job but, the job itself is not the yoke around my neck. This can be said for all of the burdens that we bare, they may be part of what we make decisions about but, they are not the underlying value that we base our decisions upon. So, what are these lovely little burdens that we think we carry? When an ox is pulling a plow, what is it that makes its job easy or difficult? Its the field. If the field is course and rocky and thick with clay, the job of pulling the plow will be long, hard, and very difficult. If the soil is fresh, loose, and weed free, the job of pulling the plow will be quite an easy task. Both of these will occur while carrying the same yoke. So the yoke is not what makes life easy or difficult, the field does.

Now comes the most important question, who is pulling on the reigns and whispering in your ear? The owner of the yoke. The beautiful part of taking up Jesus' yoke is that it is Jesus who is pulling on the reigns and whispering in our ear. The ox doesn't get to pick the field, he doesn't say how long or deep the furrows should be. It doesn't get to look over the field and say, "boy I did a good job picking this field...I sure do make nice and straight rows...that sure is a good planting...some of the times watering made me wonder if a crop would ever come up...whoo-eee look at how tall my crop is getting...this harvesting makes me shiver with excitement...I sure did a good job with this here field..." For the most part, the same ox probably won't even be used in the same field for different tasks. What one plowed, another will most likely be chosen to help in the harvest. So what would make an ox get up each day and let his master place a yoke upon him and lead him out to another field to pull dirt? If your master were a kind and gentleman that whispered in your ear, scratched your head, and gently guided each step to keep the rows right and stright, prodded you with "whoop" "hah" and " there you go, right there, nice and easy, good job..." wouldn't you want to spend a day under the sun in any field just to spend some time with Him?

So, what does His yoke look like? First off, he tells us that it is lite. If we consider that a yoke is what guides us, our value system that guides our decisions, then what is it the causes you to make the decisions that you make? From a picture of the Christian life and Jesus, what is the highest priority in our lives? What did Jesus himself say is the number one rule to follow? Love. Love God and love you neighbor. Love your job, whether it is easy or hard, it is the field the master has chosen for you at this time. Relish in the fact that you are not alone in trying to plow it but, that He is right behind you, tugging a little to the left, pulling back a little on the reigns, giving you some slack, and whispering in your ear. Love your family, they may be a heavy burden at times but, He chose the field for you and you for the field. Love your friends, neighbors, community, life, enemies, all of them have been hand picked by Him for you to plow. The beauty of being an ox is this, we don't get to pick the field, we don't get to say how deep, far or long we have to make it, we don't get to decide when the work is done or, when its time to move into another field. All we have to do is pull. Be what we are, knowing that He picked us to plow a given field, which means we must be what that field needs to do the job He wants to do. The only way we can mess things up is when we think the yoke is ours, not his, and decide to drag the plow wherever we want.

At the end of the day, he'll take us back to the barn and gives us a nice brushing, lift our chins, look us in the eyes and say, " nice job good and faithful servant." And that is when we get to retire.

If You Can't Get Out to See the World, Bring it into Your Home

A little over two years ago I came across a short little column in our local Newspaper talking about a rather large contingent of Arabic Foreign Exchange students at Pacific University here in town. The article mentioned that the group of nearly 18 students was actually small in comparison to a group of students attending Portland State University in the Metro area. Parts of the article mentioned how man of the students at PSU were also participating in American Homestay programs.

Both PSU and Pacific are quite active at hosting foreign exchange students, both have programs that help acclimate the students to American university life. Part of the program is in depth immersion classes in learning English: writing, reading, speaking and listening. Command of each is imperitive in being able to gain any return on the invetment of time and money once in standard classes. Many of the profs in these immersion classes fear that their students return back to their dorms and amongst same language freinds at the end of the day. So, many of them recommend homestays to all of their students. Under such and exchange they can go back "home" at the end of the day and practice what they have learned.

The surprising part of the article was a plea at the end. Apparently though many of the studenst in PSU had been matched with an American family, none had found homes to host them in the Forest Grove area.

In jest, I turned to my wife and asked her what she thought of hosting a foreign exchange student from Pacific. For those of us who know us, we have four kids, 10, 8, 7 and, 3. The oldest is also autistic. Needless to say, we have our hands full. And family is a good long distance away. To my greatest surprise, my wife non-chalantly shrugged her shoulders and said,"sure, why not?"

And thus an adventure began.

Our first student was a somewhat young and happy man from Saudi Arabia. We came to find that he was one of roughly a dozen members of one family over here in the area, all on scholarship. As a goodwill gesture to try and smooth the relations between the US and Saudia, the king of Saudi Arabia granted full ride scholarships to thousands of students that could get accepted into US schools and build a bridge over the gap that had been created from the 9/11 events. Anyhow, on our first meeting, this young man's smile against his dark skin was as bright as the moon in a dark sky. His name was Ali Al Matar. He lived with us for nearly three months, some a bit trying. Ali was a night owl. And back in Saudia he was a bit of an entrepreneur, selling jewelry and women's accessories in two if his own ships. So, his motive to do well in school were minor and, he was a very social creature. He would sleep till 6pm, rise, shower, and run off to visit with friends 'till 3 or 4 in the am, go get breakfast, attend class, come home around 9 or 10 am, go to sleep, repeat. Under this schedule we rarely saw him or spent much time with him. He did make a trip to Montana with us to meet Karen's family. Yet, after the third month we contacted the middleman agency and informed them that this student was participating in the homestay program so he could say he did it but, it was becoming apparent that his desire to actually become part of an American family was lacking and that our home may be better suited for a student that actually wanted to be there.

Off to campus went Ali and into our home came his older brother, Muhammed.

Next post. Muhammed Al Matar.

SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so far as I can see, no one has even looked at this, let alone read it, so...... I just jot my thoughts and know that no one will read it, so I can say just about anything. That is so coooooool!!!!!!

The Portland area just hit nearly 80 degrees. It is April 19th and we had SUN! We laugh at the cliche of this in the Pacific Northwest but, it is truly a wonderful thing to see. We opened all of the windows, found a park on the way home from church where we chased some ducks and, all in all, enjoyed the day.

Actually, part of the day was a little disappointing. Normally the Lord and I have a pretty good chat during the morning sermon but, today He was a little silent. Perhaps He was enjoying the day He had created just as much as we were.