You might say that mopping is one of my specialties.
I am no janitor, but my past three jobs & my past three practica/internships have all had me mopping something up for a good portion of time each week. That, and I actually have been employed as a janitor—but only for a week, as I was a relief worker for the regular janitor who went on vacation.
I even have taken a class in university where I was taught the proper union-grade, professional mopping technique(s).
This past week, I was mopping up the grime, slush & dirt that my store's patrons trod in on their boots from yonder parking lot. It was an epiphanous moment for me, when after I had just completed an immaculately spotless patch of floor space—glistening brightly in its damp glory—one of my managers came walking past, right over the newly cleaned tiles. As she walked past, she commented on how mopping was one of the least rewarding jobs that anyone could do, for as soon as a newcomer passed through our glass-paned doors, the moment of glory for the mopper's efforts would find itself besmirched with a sloppy trail of what looks very much like a pile of iced tea crystals in too little water. Stomp stomp stomp. Trudge trudge trudge. A wavy trail of spattered footprints mars and scars the shimmering clean floor. Cleanliness is vanquished.
It had occurred to me at that moment that this is perhaps a very good picture of God's grace. Here we go, tracking mud and dirt all over the clean floor of our lives. Jesus, the mopper, comes along and swabs up the mess that we make; restoring the floor to its original state—but again, it only takes a single step to sully that floor again. And again, Jesus comes along to clean up the mess. Even if we haven't stepped outside for days, the soles of our shoes are still covered with a film of dust, silt and debris. We cross that freshly cleaned floor only to deposit that shoe-dust on the still damp tiles, undeniably leaving a path of dirty spots corresponding to our path. Yet, again, Jesus is there to mop up the mess.
Mopping is a relentless task, especially in this season, with its snowmelt, its road sand and its ice salt. Sometimes, the job seems frustrating, since your efforts last nary a minute before experiencing corruption. The picture of God's grace in this all is that Jesus never becomes frustrated: He continues to wash the floor as an act of love. Also, in mopping, water's pretty much free & still, the incessant need to change and re-change the water to get a clean floor seems taxing. Jesus' cleaning job, however, requires a stronger, more costly solvent: to clean our dirt required his blood. And still he labours in love, wiping away the dirt over & over again. Though it cost him an exceeding amount, He has resolved not to stop cleaning the floor, keeping it spotless so that in the end, when his Father comes to inspect the place, the floor can be presented spotless and pure, an acceptable surface for a King to use.
That, I believe, is grace.
I wrote this song back in May. It's based off of the first bit of Psalm 139. Thought I'd share it with y'all. It'd be nice to sing someday with more than just myself, so... if you're interested (and musically inclined), I could fire you off a copy of the chords & we could go through it some time (as well as work on some arrangement).
You Are There (Ps. 139)
O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I fall down and when I rise up;
You have seen my thoughts before me.
You know my path, and you see my lying down.
My God, Your love, it surrounds me
You have covered me behind and before:
You have set Your hands upon me.
To wonderful to fully understand.
Where can I go from Your presence?
Or where can I flee from Your Spirit?
Where can I go from Your presence?
Or where can I flee from Your Spirit?
If I rise up to the heavens, You are there;
If I go down to the depths, You are there.
If I rise up to the heavens, You are there;
If I go down to the depths, You are there.
Even darkness is not dark to You,
And night is bright as day.
Darkness and the light are same to You
So, this is what I'll say:
Wherever I go, You are there.
Wherever I go, You are there.
Yeah, the McJob goes. The thing I've learned most so far, though, is just how brilliant Jesus was while here on earth. As a teacher/trainer, he decided to focus on a small group of people and he heavily invested into them, teaching them thoroughly and testing their understanding throughout. Instead of lecturing to the masses for the majority of his ministry, Jesus used the bulk of his time to form the lives and minds of a dozen guys: brilliant.
Why brilliant? Well, because sufficiently training individuals in the way they should go will allow those individuals to go on and sufficiently impart their training to others. It's an expansive model of instruction, allowing a small group of individuals to change the world in a matter of generations. This is precisely what happened.
How come, though? Well, since the Lord invested most of his energy on the few, these guys got drenched in the understanding of Christ & his ministry/goals. Because of this, the disciples could effectively spread the teachings of Jesus. Had Christ focussed more on the masses, many would have been exposed to his ministry & many would have received partial knowledge, but the heart of the ministry would have been lost due to the ineffectiveness of understanding as a result of the distant relationship between learner and Teacher. Therefore, since the disciples were drenched in Christ's teachings & ministry, they were given the capacity to follow suit & drench others in Christ's teachings & ministry as well. As long as the heavy, repeated exposure to His teachings prevailed, disciples could further breed more disciples & the process could continue, essentially growing at an exponential rate while still retaining an extremely high level of the message's integrity throughout disseminational generations. Perhaps the church's shift away from a discipleship model & towards a more lectural approach may explain the watering-down of Christianity and the growth of factions et the like?
The same model works brilliantly for management procedures--the checking & testing of what's been taught in order to ensure that operations/procedures retain their initial integrity. By starting off with a few, well-saturated individuals who know what's going on extremely well, these few can not only oversee others but they can also keep each other accountable as they monitor the teaching and undertaking of any operation (in this case, the Christian ministry). Such a model is simple, cost-effective, self-replicating and highly resistant to procedural aberration. Jesus = genius. Chalk another one up to the all-knowing & all-wise God.
