When God wants to tell me something, He doesn’t gives me a little whisper. If I don’t get the lesson the first time it lands in my ear, it only takes a couple of days for it to show up again in another place, another way, until I’ve learned whatever it is that I’m supposed to. Recently, I’d been struggling with this quote from Martin Luther King Jr.:
If you are called to be a street sweeper, sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.
I first read it in Alex and Brett Harris’ book, Do Hard Things. The chapter was entitled “Small Hard Things.” Before I read the book, I had been complaining to my mom about how nothing EVER happens when I do little things. Until recently, I’ve been in charge of sorting, washing, drying, and delivering to the folders all the laundry in the house. Some days I would do nine loads, but the average was six or seven. Every time I went to an event or to work at the office, I would get home and the laundry would be piled high. I felt the same discouragement with dishes. Even if I try hard to wash all the dishes on time, it would only take one of my younger siblings to say, “Oh yeah, I forgot to clean off the table,” or for my mom to say, “I found all these dirty dishes in your room,” in order to back up my beautifully done job.
So when I saw the chapter heading “Small Hard Things,” I immediately flipped to that chapter and began to read. It amazed me that the authors could relate to exactly how I felt. They talked about why we hate small jobs:
1. They go unnoticed, and
2. They never seem to be complete.
Brett and Alex share stories about teens who have learned to rise above the same frustrations I was experiencing, but at the time they didn’t encourage me much. No matter what anyone says, there will always be dishes to wash. Then they quoted MLK. I found myself stuck on the idea of sweeping streets. Sweeping streets? For an ambitious teenager, that doesn’t exactly sound like a great and amazing way to spend your life. If your name is written in history, what difference does it make if your sentence goes: “She swept streets” as opposed to “She swept streets well”?
That’s what I thought, anyway, when I read the chapter from the book. But I obviously got it wrong, because God put another book in my lap just this last weekend. In Safely Home, Randy Alcorn tells the story of Li Quan, a man who had tons of opportunities heaped upon him. A talented learner, he was, even with a humble Chinese background, accepted to Harvard University after the miraculous blessing of a small fortune. When his old college roommate, Ben, comes to visit on a business trip, he expects Quan to be a well-known professor at a local university. But when Ben attends Quan’s workplace, he finds that Quan is nothing more than a locksmith. Quan explains that universities refused to hire him because he was a Christian, so he got a job that could at least feed his family. I was enjoying the novel quite well when Quan suddenly mentioned street sweepers, quoting Martin Luther King and telling Ben that his own father was a street sweeper. “Why?” I thought. “Why do people have to go through life doing such insignificant things?” I spent the day pondering the quote while I cleaned house for the hundredth time. I came up with two things about good street sweepers that are worth noting:
1. They realize that no job is worthless.
Even jobs that are never accomplished are important in God’s eyes. If you do a job begrudgingly, it tells everyone watching that you don’t care. Jesus said in Matthew 5:47, “…if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” I’d say this applies to everything: If you do only great and noticeable work, what are you doing more than others? As Christians, we are to be set apart and different. I find that encouraging: that no matter what I’m doing, I’m different and worth noticing.
2. They take advantage of every opportunity.
What would change if we looked at everything as opportunity to glorify God? Whenever I think about little things, I’m reminded of the verse from Luke 16:10, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” The best example in my opinion is Joseph. I can relate: he had 12 siblings. Instead of waiting around for some dude to tell him he was talented and push him up a notch, he had to prove himself as a slave. Even the little jobs he was forced to do, he did well, and God blessed his work.
My problem is often seeing the opportunity. If I don’t recognize my chance to please my mom with a lightened work load or the time frame to build up a relationship with my quietest sister, then I’m not being much worth to anyone.
If you’re still wondering about people who are stuck sweeping streets until the day they die, look again at King’s quote: “If you are called to be a street sweeper…” This means if you’re called to it, that makes the job important. Besides, lots of jobs are looked down on. Many women will say that being a stay-at-home mother is comparable to sweeping streets, but my mom follows her calling with such joy and grace that all who see her are envious of her occupation. Perhaps your attitude will also be one that makes others stop to say, “Here lived one who did his job well.”