Dishes

When I was growing up I had to do chores. You know, work around the house. I remember feeding the sheep, I remember having to keep my room clean, and I remember having to do the dishes. I hated doing dishes. I don't know of many people who enjoy it.

Doing the dishes is rather boring. You fill up the sink with water. Apparently, from all the television commercials I watched as a child, lots of bubbles is good.

Then you scrub all the yuck off everything, rinse it and then dry it. Sometimes, doing dishes WITH someone is a help. One person washes and the other one dries. Washing sucks because you have your hands in all the dirty dishwater and you have to scrape all those hard things off the plates. Where do those chunks of stuff come from anyway? At one time, whatever it was, was edible and now it's like a rock stuck to the plates with superglue!

Drying is much better. You get handed all the clean plates and all you have to do is dry them. Life is much better dealing with clean, wet stuff than it is trying to clean hard, dry stuff. In my opinion. Either way, doing the dishes is not fun.

I recently had a talk with a young friend of mine. She is a part time dishwasher at a local restaurant. Things haven't changed much since I was a kid. Dishes still need to be cleaned and doing the dishes still sucks. My friend is looking for a different job. But in the meantime, my friend is doing dishes.

I have a theory about BAD JOBS. Bad jobs exist to provide incentive to get a better job. But I also have another theory and that is what I am writing about today. The theory that God uses anything He can to get our attention.

Recently, my daughter has been going through a stretch of, what some may call, bad luck. I don't believe in luck. I believe that things happen for a reason. Even things we don't suspect. Let's go back to my young friend for a moment. She is a Christian. At least she prayed once to receive Christ. But when one looks at her life, the fruit that usually accompanied such a life-changing moment, is missing. That leads me to believe that she either is a false convert or has drifted away from her faith.

Back to my daughter. She recently had a job interview that didn't go well. Her car died and was sold for scrap. Someone used her check card to buy cigarettes . . . in Atlanta. One can almost hear the cry, "Why would God let this happen to me!?!"

Open up your Bibles to the Book of Luke, Chapter 15. The story of the Prodigal Son.

"15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father." - Luke 15:15:20

The Prodigal Son had a "dirty job" as Mike Rowe would call them - feeding slop to pigs. But he finally "came to himself" and realised the error of his ways. He craved something better. He returned to his father and sought forgiveness.

I think God uses rotten job to draw us to himself. He will use them to move people around from one job to another like he did with my friend here at work. She came here from a job that she did not like and God used her to help save an old man, me, and return him to the faith he left behind years ago. How amazing is a God who gives us dirty jobs! It is though them, and His Holy Spirit, that God directs and orchestrates our lives. Thank you Lord Jesus for the struggles and the pain. for it is through them that we find our selves drawing closer to you.

"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate." - Luke 15:20-24

The Prodigal - The Skit Guys