Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

Scrubbing Floors

I'm sitting in Starbucks right now working on my message for Sunday. Directly in front of me, there is a Starbucks employee on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor and the bases of all the tables. Her name is Erica. I talked with her about what she's doing right now. She told me that she does a "deep clean" once a week.

Here's the thing…I see Erica in here a lot, but she's usually behind the counter. She has made an untold number of lattes, mochas, and frappucinos for me. She's quite good at it. But right now, she's scrubbing the floor.

What if she refused to do that? What if she said, "I'll make coffee, but I'm NOT scrubbing the floor. I'm such a great barista that I will not lower myself to floor scrubbing." Well, she'd probably be fired. After all, Starbucks is a corporate entity and employees must toe the line and do what they're told. And that is the grand difference between a corporate employee and a church volunteer.

In the church, it's all-too-easy to say, "I'm not doing that. I'll do this, but I won't do that. It's beneath me."

The last time I checked, Jesus called us to servanthood. What that means is that the mundane, menial tasks in the church (aka, scrubbing floors) should be the first things that I volunteer to do.