A Generation of Mules

One spring day, a young stallion went exploring and soon found himself in the northern pasture, about where his dad had once cautioned him. The wild animals did not roam there, the terrain was not uneven, and the grass was plentiful – indeed, these only added to the danger of the place. For it was on this north end of the pasture where They were corralled and fed. Who were They? – The Donkeys!

The stallion had previously noticed from a distance that they didn’t look so different from donkeys, and at moments, the grass appeared to be greener on their side of the fence. His glance lingered a little longer than he knew his father would like, and he was about to turn and run away when he saw her. A beautiful donkey with big, dark eyes and the prettiest coat of fur he’d ever seen. They soon began walking along the fence and talking about how they might get together. She reminded him that the fence was too high for the donkeys to jump over, but horses had hurdled it on several occasions. But the stallion loved his parents, his pasture, and his way of life too much to leave it all, even for her; so he searched along the fence until he found a hole in it just large enough that a donkey might squeeze through. The donkey agreed to come, marry the stallion, and live like a horse from now on.

Some eleven months later, a baby equine was delivered by the donkey. It had its father’s strength and its mother’s good looks. It grew to be a hard worker and stubbornly resistant to evil. – As a matter of fact, this entire scenario began to be quite typical of many other equines in that area of the pasture until, before long, mules were running around everywhere.

There’s a problem with mules, though: they cannot effectively carry out the Great Commission over the long term. Neither can we succeed across the street, across the state, across the nation, or across the seas until we succeed across the living room.

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 – “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”