Empty Stables

I have always loved this verse from Proverbs 14. "An empty stable stays clean...but there is no income from an empty stable." It is such a simple concept and yet it speaks to each of us in different ways.
For example, my empty stable could be my home. I have always thought that God is interested in the place that we chose to live. We prayed much over the choice of buying a home when we moved to Texas and know that this particular house was the right choice for us. We have made many changes but one thing has not changed, it is a home for God's use and not ours. If we did not open our home to guests, our carpet would not be stained, our furniture would not sag in the middle, and there would be no scratches on our wood floor. In other words, our empty stable would be clean. But we would miss the harvest that follows. We would miss the opportunity to invest. The whole point of a stable is to provide housing for animals. The whole point of our possessions is to provide things that God can use. How foolish to long for an empty, clean stable that no one has "messed up" or "used up."
For some folks the empty stable could be our calendar. It is a thrill to see more free time in our busy lives. I am not saying that we do not need a time to relax and replenish. I am saying that it is tempting to look at a calendar and want to hoard the time for our own pursuits...our own amusements.
I heard a speaker say that we need to invest our days and not spend our days. I am guilty of spending my day recklessly and not investing my day into things that will count for eternity. Our churches are filled with people that spend their time on themselves and do not invest their time in service. The empty stable to them is a clean calendar, but when there is no messy acts of service(and service does get messy) there is also no eternal rewards. The point of our time is investing in eternal things and not an empty calendar to spend on our time on ourselves. "Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should."
The saddest empty stable is the empty heart. Many people do not take the risk of giving away our heart. It seems safer to keep our distance. We throw ourselves into our jobs, our recreation, or our next meal. We go to great lengths to shield ourselves from pain. But an empty heart yields no income. I realize that getting my heart filled up will be messy and scary. But the income will be worth the mess that is created.
The next time you are tempted to take the safe way of an empty stable, reconsider. An empty stable yields no income, no rewards.