He wants a fish to net, but not his feet to wet.
-Local Oral Tradition
This local proverb speaks about necessary mess. Valuable work brings certain costs and messes with it. This saying refers to someone who wants the reward of catching a fish, but without the unpleasant wetness that tends to come along with it. “Getting your hands dirty,” and “You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs” are close English equivalents to this idea. Or, simply, “No pain, no gain.”
This proverb would be used when someone is excited about a certain outcome but then balks at the cost required to achieve it. We’ve all seen it. Someone is totally with us as we cast vision and talk about the amazing potential of a certain work. But then we talk about what it actually takes to get there, how long it’s going to take – and we’ve lost them.
Proverbs like this are important for reminding us about the nature of reality. We are prone to illusions that we can easily gain wealth, influence, or ministry success without much hard work. But we live in a post-fall world. By and large, good fruit only comes through painful toil and sweat equity, by getting our feet wet. This applies to fruit in both the natural and spiritual realms. Starting a business is very hard. So is planting a church. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something.
Solomon also speaks of necessary mess – and how it can be evidence of good work being done. “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox” (Prov 14:4). The logic is clear. If you want abundant crops, you need oxen. And oxen make messes.
Clean mangers and silver bullet ministry methods may sound great. But the kind of fruit that counts is costly – and yes, often very messy too.
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Entrusted to the Dirt 