Sunday Musings: All That You Do

This is an excerpt from my devotional book, "Fruits of the Spirit: Love

1 Corinthians 16:14

Let all your things be done with love.

When Jesus put a towel around his waist, filled up bowls of water, knelt down in front of His apostles, and washed their feet, it was an act of love. Culturally, it was something that servants did, but He took on the servant role to show the apostles that He was their servant.

He did it to show us that He is our servant.

He did it to show the apostles that they were to be servants, and that everything we do, no matter how menial, is an act of love towards someone else.

Personally, I’m not a fan of feet. I like having my feet rubbed, frankly, it’s ecstasy, but I don’t like touching other people’s feet unless they belong to a baby.

There is a lot of squishy adorability in a baby’s feet.

Not so much in adults’ feet, including mine. Okay, especially mine.

I could never be a podiatrist or a pedicurist.

I know I am not alone in this.

So Jesus, who is God, and could have angels washing and messaging His feet, and clipping his toenails throughout eternity, kneeling down, and doing the menial act of washing the dirty, smelly feet of twelve men, is actually pretty astonishing.

He could have just told them what He wanted. He was a good storyteller, and he could have come up with a washing feet story to illustrate His desire to have the apostles be servants.

Instead, He got down on his knees and did it.

And He didn’t just do a demonstration. He could have picked the apostle with the least smelly feet, demonstrated washing the feet, explained what He was doing, and then instructed the apostles to pick a partner and wash each other’s feet.

But He didn’t do that either. He washed each apostle’s feet. He showed his love to each member of his apostolic crew. Even Judas. Even the man whom He knew would betray Him.

He washed the feet of Judas.

There was nothing too small or too menial for Jesus to do. There was no one too unimportant for Jesus to help.

I remember once, after a church gathering, when everyone was pitching in and cleaning up from the activities, I found the bishop in the chapel, vacuuming the pews.

He could have easily not done it. He could have gotten out of it, and no one would have questioned why our local church leader wasn’t cleaning. After all, he was already volunteering all his available time to be the bishop after he did his day job. He had people to counsel, finances to control, decisions to be made, talks to write, people to marry, funerals to attend, and meetings to be at. Vacuuming was not in the bishop’s job description. No one would have criticized him and said, “Why isn’t the bishop here helping clean up?”

But he was there, vacuuming the pews, getting them ready for Sunday service.

Because no job is too menial or unimportant when done with love.

What if we went through our day thinking “love”?

When we rise in the morning and take care of our physical needs, such as showering, brushing our teeth, and combing our hair, what if we think of it as loving ourselves the way God loves us? Jesus commanded us to love ourselves.

Reading our scriptures and saying our prayers is an act of love towards God, but it’s also an act of love towards ourselves. Our days go so much better when we take some time with God and God’s word. We’re saying I love you to God, and we get it back in return.

What if, while we exercise, we thank God for a body that can move, imperfections and all? Even when we’re not crazy about the body we’re in, we still need to love it for all the things it can do.

What if we fixed breakfast for others as an act of love? Or view going to work as an act of love to provide for those we love. We could deal kindly with the people we come across, even when they’re not kind to us. Even that boss who causes us stress and we can never please.

What if while we’re driving, we are just a little more careful, a little more observant, so when we see that woman pushing the stroller with another child in hand, we are a little more patient when she crosses the street.

What if we walked down the street and smiled at people, held the door open for someone, said please and thank you, and dealt calmly with bank tellers and store clerks, even if we’re not getting what we want?

What if we listened to God’s promptings and did that crazy thing like visiting that person we hardly ever see?

When we get home and face the drudgery of housework, what if we remind ourselves that a clean home is an act of love towards ourselves and all who live there?

If we make dinner, we can do it with love. If dinner is made for us, we can thank the person who made it and help with the cleanup. Every cook loves to hear “thank you.”

What if we told the people we love who live with us, that we love them – every single day. Even those teenagers who don’t say it back and don’t want to hear it. They do. They just don’t want to admit that they want to hear it.

What if every time we talk on the phone to someone we love, we say, “I love you”, just before we end the call?

What if at the end of our day, we took a moment and told God, “I love You.”

He’s listening.