Day 096: Work

"Where there are no oxen, the stalls are clean, but where there are abundant crops, the strength of an ox is evident."  Proverbs 14:4

This proverb gives us an insight into life.

Something that I'm sure many people envy is having time to relax.  Sometimes we see our friends who do nothing but relax.  They have the time to sleep long hours, and then they get to have more time to do whatever they want.  On the other hand, our lives are ones that are filled with many stresses, such as working long hours and facing criticism after criticism.

But the proverb is quite sly when it expresses the truth.  The clean stalls, the lives that are just of relaxation, are a revelation of a life without any work at all.  These lives are ones that are fruitless.  They are ones where they are mere shells of what's supposed to be happening.  Just walk into a stable, ranch, zoo, or wherever animals are kept, and you can smell and see how hard it is to have a clean stall in the first place.  Clean stalls are either new or ones that aren't being used.

On the contrary, lives that produce lots of fruits, lives where many things are happening, are ones where we can see that there is effort.  There is work in the midst of all the troubles.

This proverb explains that living a good life will require lots of work.  There will be piles of papers on your desk.  There will be files unsorted all over your computer desktop.  There will be sinks full of dirty dishes.  There will be misplaced items.  There will be an unmade bed.  But there will be results.  Our journey with Christ will require us to leave many things behind, but we will reach the goal, where life will be just an abundance of fruits that will sustain us to eternal life.