The humbled servant

"The greatest among you must be your servant. Anyone who raises himself up will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be raised up." Matthew 23:11-12

Last summer, I decided to take a housekeeping job in a condominium by the beach.

I was so excited about it because I thought it would be awesome to do something that I don't need to use my brains to do my job. Compared to what I used to do as a secretary and a teacher and now as a site leader/child-care provider, I thought housekeeping will be an easy-breezy job.

I thought it won't require any effort to accomplish my task since it doesn't involve any excellent written and verbal communication skills to clean the toilet. It doesn't need any mathematical abilities to fold laundry. And it doesn't require any educational background to vacuum the floors.

I thought it would be a cool job for the summer because the workplace is just right there at the beach. I planned to spend some "me" time at the beach after work lying on my beach towel reading a book and people watching while sipping a strawberry smoothie. That didn't happen.

I lasted only 2 days in the job. I got sick. And came home crying at the end of the day. It was such a hard work. Cleaning rooms is hard work. I thought it was easy because for me it's just a chore. All my expectations of myself went down the drain and my admiration and respect for the people who do this for a job went up the ceiling.

Though I never look down on people who do manual labor, I never given it a thought that their job is indeed hard work until I took the job. Though I don't discriminate people whose job involved physical labor, I don't highly look at it as important until I found myself in their shoes. And though I had never dream of doing chores for the rest of my life, I do believe that housekeeping is an important skill to keep the house runs smoothly.

Prayers

Lord, thank you for giving me the strength to do my job

but most importantly, for giving me job no matter how small or big it is

Help me to find inspiration from the people who do hard work

and appreciate their contributions no matter how small or big they are. Amen.

Spiritual Musing Sunday