An Abundant Life Can Feel Messy

Proverbs 14:4

Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.

I read this verse recently, and it made me smile. And the thought which struck me when I read it was this: an abundant life can feel messy.

Allow me to expound:)

We tend to want our lives to be clean and tidy. We want everything in its place—we want our lives thought out, planned out, and kept in order. We don’t love it when God disrupts our orderly lives and our orderly plans. 

We want the abundant harvest, but we want the harvest without messing up our barn.

But an abundant harvest requires a dirty ox.

Our barn may look muddy—our manger may look a mess—but that mud and that mess is evidence that we are running oxen in our fields. We’re plowing the ground that is ours to plow. We don’t have a field and a barn just sitting around for looks, we’re plowing and planting and harvesting what God has given us.

So if you're plowing or planting today, and it feels more messy and unkept than you’d like, just remember your abundant harvest will be worth that messy manger.