Get-R-Done
Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep – So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man. – Proverbs 6:6-11 NKJV.
When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.” – Luke 22:45-46 NKJV.
But his lord answered and said to him, “You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed.” – Matthew 25:26 NKJV.
Most of you know who Larry the Cable Guy is. His name is actually Daniel Lawrence Whitney, and he’s a comedian whose motto, whose theme is Get-R-Done. The History Channel, beginning last year produced a series that starred Larry the Cable Guy as he traveled the country, and experienced working at different jobs. I have watched a few of those History Channel shows and enjoyed them. If there is a motto, theme, slogan for the farmer, the oilfield worker, or blue collar workers in other industries, I think it is the motto, the theme of Larry the Cable Guy: Get-R-Done.
I grew up on a farm, and my Dad farmed, drove a truck, worked at the air base, and did basically what he needed to do to support his family and survive. He was able to support himself by farming alone for only a period of five or six years. On the farm, you don’t have a bunch of other people there to help when something goes wrong. It is up to you for the most part to take care of whatever the problem is. You’ve got to Get-R-Done.
My Dad always had a lot of scrap metal, and collected more of it whenever he could. Because whenever a plow or something on the tractor broke; he was going to try to fix it with some of that scrap metal, a welder, a cuttin’ torch, and whatever else he could find. Because when you live on a farm, you have to Get-R-Done, and that’s the way it has been for thousands of years.
When you are in the oilfield, it’s the same way. The first drill pipe inspection unit that I operated (Later I would operate tubing and casing inspection units.) by myself was a brand new one brought up to Oklahoma from Odessa, Texas. The first job that I went on with that unit was in December, and the temperature was ten degrees. I had a two man crew to run the air jacks. My boss, the owner of the company, and the customer were setting in a car watching. The only problem was that the air jacks that we used to jack up the drill pipe, so the inspection buggy could run down it, would not work. The air system was rigged up all wrong.
I had never looked closely at the air system before, but when you have everyone standing around looking at you, and your job is on the line – you have to do what? Get-R-Done. So, you remember it’s ten degrees, and I have a bunch a people standing around watching while I pull everything apart in a compartment on the side of the truck. I tried to figure out what was wrong, and put it all back together. You can probably guess what else I was doing? I was praying. Thank God it all worked, and we got the job done. Because in the oilfield and in life, you have to do what? Get-R-Done.
God will give us the strength, the energy, the wisdom to Get-R-Done in our lives. However, this does not just automatically happen. Instead of sleeping in, we need to do what? We need to pray so that we do not “enter into temptation.” We need to read God’s Word because we do not live by bread alone (Matthew 4:4). We need to assemble with other believers so that we will be stirred up unto love and good works (Hebrews 10:24). We need to be good stewards of what we have been given, so that God will bless our work (Matthew 25:14-30). So, instead of sleeping in, instead of having a pity party, instead of getting depressed, let us rise up in the power of God and Get-R-Done!
(God will give us the strength, the energy, the wisdom to Get-R-Done in our lives.)