Work and Pray

"There are many rooms in my mansion... and they all need cleaning!"

Sometimes I get really strange ideas in the shower. My mind tends to drift with the hot water and I make connections in ways that I never made them before - sort of a bi-partisan creative mode that brings ideas from one side of the mind over to mingle with ideas from the other side of the mind to create new ideas that are the best of both worlds. Often times the path that these thoughts take is lost in the hot water. But in this case, it was painful memories that dredged up the above quote.

A great servant of the Lord passed away last week - a man who served at my church for many, many years. Most of the time we got along well, but there was one stretch where things were very disfunctional at my church and he said something to me that just shocked me. It was a reminder of that quote that led to the above quote.

You see, I was the head of a Welcoming Committee at my church and it was my job to find ushers every week. The ushers not only greeted people who came to church on Sunday, but also collected the offering. There were always four ushers. Now, normally, it was no problem finding ushers. It's like a three minute job and there are usually a ton of volunteers. But during this one stretch when things were so disfunctional, I suddenly found my supply of volunteers dwindling to the point where a couple of times, I was the only usher.

Finally, at one point near the end of all these troubles, said servant of the Lord came up to me and explained that he and his group of dissenters would not be volunteering any more because of the disfunction in the church. Like I said, I was very shocked.

I admit at times that it feels as if we're all overburdened with our jobs. Heck, I was just replaced as youth leader at my church (unofficially - I think they're hoping I'll come back... and I might ;) because my real life load was getting too burdensome. I know that on one particular fund raiser after I'd organized, set up, cooked, and served, someone was still upset because I didn't help clean up as well (though I was actually helping clean up at the time, I guess I hadn't quite helped enough ;) But I always like to think that I've chipped in and helped as much as humanly possible whenever I could reasonably lend a hand. But to willfully go on strike to make a point that has nothing to do with Christ but has everything to do with church politics made no sense to me.

It seems that when we are called to be servants of Christ, we are explained the rules of our employment. We are told that the road will be hard. We are told that there is a lot of work to do. We are told that this path is not for everyone and that, indeed, many who start on this path will not reach the end. And we are told that our decision to join is entirely up to us. It is a decision that we get to make. Its not made for us. And its a decision that should be made joyfully, fully aware of the burdens we are about to take on.

How many of us know people who have arrived at the Mansion and at the first sign of chores have quietly slipped out the back to soak in the sun by the pool? Work is for others. It is beneath them. They have not joined this religion to do work. They have joined for all the fringe benefits. And when they are cornered and asked to work, they do so with grumbles and complaints and then talk up their accomplishments as if they're secretly running the entire household behind our backs.

I think we're all given to fits and piques over the hard labor of the Lord. There are times where we all grumble, but then we keep going, we keep doing, because there are many rooms... and they all need to be cleaned... and they're not going to clean themselves.