Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest. Proverbs 14:4
While taking my son to preschool this morning I saw PROV144 on a license plate in front of me and looked it up on my phone. Â Not sure what they meant by it (their kids are messy?) but I think its a great summary of what our staff team is feeling right now.
I e-mailed my team that verse and these thoughts this morning:
If you have no oxen, you won’t have any poop to clean up. Â Life is easy. Â And Fruitless.
If you have a lot of oxen, there’s going to be a mess.
We’ve got a lot on our plate right now. Â More contacts than we can handle. Â More people to be discipled than we can manage. Â More students in Bible studies than we can track with.
It’s messy. Â And overwhelming.
But, by God’s grace, and with a lot of work, it will yield an abundant harvest.
I once heard a mega-church pastor comment: “Birth is messy. Death is organized. Many churches that are super organized in committees and such are really just dead.”
Anyone else, when you read ‘oxen’, immediately think “’what’s the plural of box, Brian?’ . . . ‘Boxen!’”.
If not, do yourself a favor and buy Brian Regan’s comedy CD.
Photo courtesy of Ecoagriculture Partners via Flickr