Ox Over Easy?

Where there are no oxen, the feeding trough is empty, but an abundant harvest comes through the strength of an ox.  Proverbs 14:4

It’s easier not to do the hard work.

It’s easier to blame the conditions.

It’s easier to blame the hard soil.

It’s easier to say you couldn’t get good help.

It’s cleaner if you get the ones that don’t get messy.

But ease usually leads to lean. It leads to clean and tidy and empty. Empty results. Empty soul. Empty purpose. Empty hopes. Empty pockets. Empty accounts. Empty pews. Empty baptistery. Empty rooms. Empty building.

The hard thing is like using an ox to plant. More difficult to get. More difficult to tame. More difficult to keep clean. More difficult to steer. More difficult to manage. More difficult all the way around, really.

Except at harvest time. The ox does the one thing needed to get the job done.

It’s the hard thing, but the right thing.

What is it you need to take ownership of? What’s the hard thing you need to grab a hold of and do? You know – right now in your gut – what it is and what your supposed to do. It’s easier and cleaner not to. But you don’t want empty, do you? No. You want abundance.

So you decide: You want to manage easy or an ox?