Cleaning Bathrooms and the Kingdom

I discovered this morning that cleaning bathrooms has something to do with the meaning of life. I got up early to pray with a guy from my church, but afterwards I went back to my apartment and back to bed. I was quite reluctant to do any work. I have to work on research and homework and grade this week (even though it is Spring Break), and this evening I am leading a meeting at my apartment, a meeting of people who are also leading Bible studies (with International Friends). For whatever reason, this morning these tasks seemed pointless and unrewarding to me.

But I knew that I needed to clean the bathroom because its state was unacceptable for guests. Strangely, this conviction is what got me back out of bed; And as I began cleaning, I suddenly became excited about life again. As I cleaned I was flooded with a sense that what I was doing was important.

Now that I have had a little while to reflect, I think this sense of purpose came from connecting what I was doing to the kingdom of God. In the back of my mind I was thinking of the meeting this evening. If what I was doing was important for the meeting, then the meeting must be important, too. This reminded me that the meeting actually was important. Ideally, I think the chain of thoughts should go the other way around. I laugh now at my backward thinking; but that is how it happened.

But I also think that cleaning the bathroom reminded me of my own dignity as a child of God. The more I write about this, the more I realize how silly and backward my thinking was. I think I get so burdened with the “big” things of life that I forget about the importance of the “little” things, of walking day by day and step by step.

I also think that praying with my friend from church the hour before helped me, too.

Praise God for chores!