“Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.”
Proverbs 14:4 (NLT)
You have to grow up in the country or around country people to fully understand this Proverb.
My grandmother raised chickens and let other people keep their horses and sometimes cattle on her ten acre piece of land. And I learned early on that you did not wear your good boots when you went out to the chicken shed or to the barn.
Because there was poop everywhere. If you have farm animals in the stable, you have poop in the stable. Fact of life. Can’t be avoided.
And if you are really involved in missional living, you have people that are far from God in your life. And having people that are far from God in your life means you have extra poop in your life.
If you minister to people, you deal with poop. If you love on and live among people that are far from God, you have even more poop.
No mess in your life means you are doing no real ministry.
And no real ministry in your life means no mess.
I am saddened to see how many times we settle for neat and clean living over missional mess. We often choose control (or the mirage of control) over the chaos of ministry.
Is that what Jesus did? Is that what Jesus still does?
I believe Jesus came into this world because it was full of mess and sin and hurt. He did not run from the mess. He entered the mess. He loved into the mess. He embraced the mess. He even took the mess upon Himself.
Mary and I had always planned to have kids. Ours are adopted, as I shared earlier. When they came into our world, everything changed. They brought their mess into our lives.
At first, they were just cute. Totally cute. Amazingly cute. And the mess was minimal when they were small. Clean up a little poop. Deal with a little throw up. But they were cute and cuddly. It worked!
And then they became two year-olds – and the fight was on. Now they were not just cute. Now they were cute little sinners.
The teenage years followed. That awesome and awful time between being a kid and being an adult. No one is at ease. No one is chilled. No one is safe. Because now they were cute little demon possessed sinners.
Having kids means you must embrace the trouble and the mess along with the joy and the wonder. They go hand in hand.
The same is true with being on mission. Being on mission, being sent, means you must embrace the trouble and the mess of those around you that you are called to love, to care for and to bless. Those you are called to show and tell of the love of Christ. They are messed up, troubled, poopy little sinners – and sometimes poopy big sinners – who we must embrace.
Jesus embraced the poop of this world because he loved the people of this world.
We must also embrace the poop of those who are far from God because we love them.
It can really be messy. But the great part of ministry is watching God change them and begin to clean up the mess. That is a front row seat that is only available to those who are willing to enter the stall.