I tell people that I am far more interested in the 30 years God in the flesh – Jesus Christ – spent on this Earth than the three years of miracles.
Because this would have shown his richness in balance of life. We all have “aholisms” of some sort. Things that we like to do therefore over doing them and underdoing things we do not like to do. I believe this is what damages our minds and bodies.
White-collar people generally have extremely unhealthy bodies, and blue-collar people might not plan their work for more efficiency so it rules them rather than the other way around. Yet also, mechanization has many blue-collar workers’ bodies unhealthy also.
I like to tell people that I feel our country became the richest, most productive country by far that the world has ever known because of the Jesus Christ principle. The liberals say it was our forefathers’ industrial slave trade versus the older spoils of war slave trade. Spoils of war usually involved more bloodshed, and the former southern slave states that fought the hardest to keep slaves are known for having the lowest income, black or white, so go figure that brain dead argument.
The recipe to productivity is “servant heartedness.” When Jesus said a boss must be servant of all, he hit it right on target. Bosses who take that seriously know their business with great skill and meticulous detail.
They have usually started on their own on the very lowest rung of the ladder, especially starting a small business from scratch.
They know first hand what it is like to be on the bottom.
Look at Joseph and Daniel in the Bible – beautiful examples of slaves of all becoming extremely productive. Good bosses also know how to keep their business running when they are gone. These bosses know they cannot expect the company to run itself with a burned out workforce, so they wisely plan efficiency so they can pay more and give time off.
Extremely skilled horsemen had the same attitude. These horsemen knew that if they taught their horses to conquer their work through focus, balance, skill, consistency and communication, they would have extremely valuable animals that would work on their own.
The biggest single motivation that helped horses or mules or even oxen work on their own was giving them “two resting places.” Loggers know first hand that if their horses were given rest at the log cutting area as well as the staging area, these animals would actually work by themselves with no one guiding them. Picture a logging company having two-dozen horses trained that way. Picture teams of horses moving across a field all on their own because they know they will be rested at the end of the field before being turned around to head the other direction.
The interval of rest would determine the spacing between teams. One horse is really 10 horsepower. A 20 horsepower tractor can pull a two-bottom plow just like two good horses or mules could. Forty horses is the equivalent of 400 horsepower. That is a $40-60,000 investment in horses, versus a $200,000 tractor with rubber tracks. Horses can reproduce themselves, but the tractor needs $200,000 or more to replace it.
Any thinking brain knows that what farmers are dealing with now is not sustainable. The average age of farmers keeps shooting up because of this dilemma. Technology and GPS systems are a substitute for pure, raw skill.
I picture young farmers thinking outside the box, refusing to sell themselves into slavery to the bank. They will instead focus on pure, raw skill and start to realize that many farmers of long ago had lost skills that we do not even know about today.
They will be serious about finding skills that that were so old that they are new again.
Ecclesiastes 3:15 says, “whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.”
Mike Daniels is a horsemanship trainer and barefoot trimming specialist from Raymondville. His columns are posted online at www.houstonherald.com. Email: rlhorse58@yahoo.com.