This was the question I asked myself this morning as I cleaned the toilet! There will always be tasks that we don’t enjoy doing. It may be cleaning the toilet, unblocking a drain, doing menial jobs which we feel we should not have to do. It’s part of life and there is a degree of humility in doing them. Do we ever need to go up in the world to a point where we will never ever need to do a menial unpleasant job again? I doubt it.
All of us are equal in that we cry the same watery tears and bleed the same colour blood. Some of us have gifts of cleaning and others talented in managerial work. Some of us are good with our hands and others good with voices or words or sport or song. We are all so vastly different but when it comes to advancement in the world today do we ever need to go up in the world so that we ‘feel’ we have arrived at whatever destination we aimed for?
Once we get there, will we be happy?
I think not. I think that those who have got to the top of their game whatever it may be, soon discover that the air is a bit thin up there – it’s overrated, over-stressed and while initially it may come with some satisfaction, ultimately it will be underwhelming. What’s next? I’ve got to my long-dreamed-for destination and now what? The hollow feeling of emptiness may be significant in the realisation that what was expected to be a glorious view of being on top of the world, turns out to be an un-penetrable fog through which no man can see. Anticlimax comes to mind.
Do we ever need to go up in the world?
Practically speaking, I think it depends on how far down you are. I think of the man lying on the bench who gets robbed of his only possessions at 2am. It would be good for him to go up in the world – to be able to have a roof over his head, a purpose to get up in the morning and an income to provide for his needs.
But when you are like a million of us who hover in the middle wondering if we should have made more of our lives – whether the significance of our life could possibly be higher than we are now, I think the answer is pretty much ‘no, we don’t need to go up in the world.’ And if we are up there in the thin air, we need to work hard on our attitude towards ourselves and our fellow men.
Clean the toilet.
Make the tea.
Serve.
Wherever our station in life, if we are being the best person we can be, in light of those around us, we never need to go up in the world.
We need to come back to earth, walk along side hurting others, be a servant.
When I am bowed down, then I AM up in the world.
Matthew 20:16
“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
A good lesson from doing the job I like least – cleaning the loo.
These are the days!
Keep the smile going.
God bless you!
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂