The Goat and the Stick

David Livingstone was eager to travel into the uncharted lands of Central Africa to preach the gospel. On one occasion, the famous nineteenth-century missionary and explorer arrived at the edge of a large territory that was ruled by a tribal chieftain. According to tradition, the chief would come out to meet him there; Livingstone could go forward only after an exchange was made. The chief would choose any item of Livingstone's personal property that caught his fancy and keep it for himself, while giving the missionary something of his own in return.

Livingstone had few possessions with him, but at their encounter he obediently spread them all out on the ground—his clothes, his books, his watch, and even the goat that provided him with milk (since chronic stomach problems kept him from drinking the local water). To his dismay, the chief took this goat. In return, the chief gave him a carved stick, shaped like a walking stick.

Livingstone was most disappointed. He began to gripe to God about what he viewed as a stupid walking cane. What could it do for him compared to the goat that kept him well? Then one of the local men explained, "That's not a walking cane. It's the king's very own scepter, and with it you will find entrance to every village in our country. The king has honored you greatly."

The man was right. God opened Central Africa to Livingstone, and as successive evangelists followed him wave after wave of conversions occurred.

Sometimes, in our disappointment over what we don't have, we fail to appreciate the significance of what God has given us.

Just like livingstone, we look at God’s “stick,” that is His Cross, and disdain it. We look at what we give up to gain it: our sin, our control, our lust, our lives. Most of the world considers it a bad trade. But when we understand what the cross really does for us. When we understand the provision of the cross, we realize that giving up our “goats” really makes sense. We say with the songwriter, and we come to the place that we can truly say with the song writer, “Nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross I cling.”