A Proverb For Strength
A mathematics teacher I once knew had a desk strewn with stacks of papers. These were the days before electronic assignment turn-in and grading. Stuffed in between the pages of textbooks were student papers. It looked as if he had received homework from a class, crumbled it up, smoothed it out, and placed the wrinkled sheets between the covers of the book as a carrying case. A sign hung on the wall overlooking this scene: A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind.
The professor was no slouch. He was one of the best teachers in the school. His students regularly went on to study mathematics, physics, or engineering in college. Even students who had little interest in math gained skills they never imagined in trigonometry and calculus. His classroom was fruitful.
So his messy desk wasn't a sign of laziness or carelessness, even if it was a place that only he could make sense of.
I think of that desk and of that excellent teacher when I read Proverbs 14:4 that says:
Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean,
but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.
A clean desk may be the sign of a sick mind; likewise, a clean manger is perhaps the sign of a farmer also worried about the wrong things. A dirty manger signifies a hard-working ox and a farmer who is busy bringing in the crops the ox has helped him plant.
Another friend of mine would quote this proverb to encourage me when working with people. People are messy. It's even messier when we knit our lives together as friends and family, especially within the church. But abundant relationship comes from the strength of working through our messy lives.
We shouldn't despair when relationships get messy. That might be the moment just before they become fruitful. Abundant relationships come when the strengths of people are united together. Just watch out for the smell.
The proverbs of the Bible are collected together in chapters, but there is no clear organizational structure within or across them. We don't know why they are in the order in which we find them. But sometimes a theme seems to emerge out of a grouping. That's what I see in Proverbs 14:2-7.
Our proverb about the messy manger is flanked before and after by warnings about the devious, the fool, the false witness, and the scoffer. Instead, the reader is pointed toward the one who walks in uprightness, the lips of the wise, the faithful witness, and the man of understanding. Abundant wisdom and fruitful relationships come from one group and not the other.
Don't be afraid of the mess that comes from relationships with others. Some of that mess comes as we learn to discern the upright from the devious, the fool from the wise, and the faithful from the false.
Remember to be grateful when you find friends and family who are wise, faithful, and upright. Remember, too, that Jesus is the ultimate faithful friend who took your mess upon himself that you could be part of his family. The best friends point you to him.