“Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.” Proverbs 14:4 NLT
The humor, candor and wisdom of Proverbs has always impressed and challenged me – my entire Christian life! Knowing that the entire book is a direct reflection on God’s character, the image of Jesus makes complete sense. God created humans out of chaos. And, our sin, our choices brings daily chaos into our lives and the greater blue globe we live on as well.
This Proverb is totally about us and the stable is the world in which we live. No people, no crazy, no mess. People = messiness. A dear friend and former pastor-boss quoted this Proverb constantly while dealing with the never ending messes, damage and drama in the church building. He would let us decorate the auditorium for kid’s events, plastering massive themed partyware everywhere. And staples, oh, we must have used hundreds of thousands over the years. We trashed the pristine sanctity of the sanctuary. You know what he said about it? He just quoted this verse! “Without oxen, a stable stays clean.” I always enjoyed the object-lesson picture in my mind of hundreds of oxen and the “mess” they must leave behind! But, oh, doth the oxen doeth the work! Hundreds if not thousands, over the years experienced God in a fun, wild atmosphere within the church building!
Would we have the church, or our own lives, for that matter, reflect more of a mortuary/morgue atmosphere? Where the dead are super clean and oh so quiet? I’m might be so inclined to tweak the Proverb to say, “without children, a house stays clean.” Or, “without people, the church stays clean,” as well. Kids are messy, youth are messy and we might as well admit it, adults are messy too. We may look all neat and tidy on the outside, but inside we have the seething brew of conflicts, comparisons and complications of adulting! If you ever wondered why the Church is a place of pandemonium, look no further than our own hearts.
Amidst all the chaos and clutter of humanity, God so loved us and redeemed us to be His advocates, His ambassadors, His reconcilers in this grand field of life. So yeah, we get a whole lot of messy, but with the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us we get a heck of a lot of Godly work done as well. So be strong and courageous my fellow oxen! Put on that easy yoke of Jesus and experience the joy of working in God’s field of humanity!
Prayer
Dad,
Put me in coach! Yoke me up and put me to work. Thank you for helping us keep a very busy, massively messy stable clean. I appreciate every bit of chaotic life that comes with being a human. Especially knowing that your grace is greater than the messes I create in myself and others. Thank you for creating me, redeeming me and putting me in the field to work the harvest of souls who are desperately in need of you.