not in the brochure

It might be the question I dread the most: “What did you do today?” or its cousin “So, what do you do when there are no groups staying here?” Wait, maybe the question I dread the most is “Can I have a brighter light bulb?” No…on second thought, it’s definitely the first ones. 

It seems lately that when somebody asks me that (in a voice filled with love and interest) the snarky voice in my head wants to snap, (in a voice most devoid of love) “Well, nothing that would make the brochure!”

And the more and more I think on it—that voice is dead right.

And that’s a good thing.

Ya see, sometimes my grouchy self, instead of hearing “What did you do today?” hears, “Did you do anything today?” And it is in my nature to want to give a report about my productivity, as though my worth is tied up in how many valuable items got scratched off a to-do list. I want to tell about projects I accomplished—because hard work feels good, and accomplishing things feels good, and it makes me feel important and needed and, well, good.  But most days I can’t sum up my day with bullet points of progress.  More days start like this: 

• 5:30 get up and go check on breakfast upstairs 
• Make several pots of coffee.
• Run up and down the stairs and in and out of locked cabinets getting various items such as: a pen, some glue, hand sanitizer, a better knife, napkins, some different glue, a box, a smaller box, make and bring some photocopies, some rubber bands, toilet paper, a hammer, another blanket, a different pillow, a scale, the first box we started with
•  8:00 go to devotional

And while all this bustling around can leave me feeling self important and valuable—it’s nothing that would make the brochure. It’s nothing that you can sum up as an accomplishment. 

There are other times when the pace is quite different. The mission building is empty and quiet, and nobody is asking me what the guy on the loudspeaker is saying, or why there are ants on the wall. Sometimes those days go like this:

 (and I confess, this is an actual whiny letter I wrote my mommy, which she convinced me to share)

• ·         Since nothing was going on we invited a family from church over for dinner
• ·         9:30 I went to the markets--which were packed so I didn't get back till after 11
• ·         Then I cleaned the kitchen
• ·         I started cooking the chicken and mixing up the cake 
• ·         Then the refrigerator started making a terrible noise--so Jonathan pulled it out and I researched on the internet what might be wrong--and we emptied it, and unplugged, and defrosted with a blow drier.
• ·         And since it was empty I cleaned it, and since it was pulled out I cleaned behind it. 
• ·         Then it started working again, (yay!) so I put everything back. 
• ·         Then I started chopping onions, and cut my hand. So I stopped to put ice on it, but then the hall was full of smoke so I started trying to figure out why. Then Jonathan checked it out after I kept bugging him about it and discovered it was our landlord burning something in front of the baby Jesus statue in the hallway--so I went back to work.
• ·         Of course, since I had bled all over counter, I had to clean the kitchen again.
• ·         Back to chopping onions---cut my other finger. 
• ·         More cleaning kitchen counters. More bandaging.
• ·         Reheat leftovers for lunch. It's about 1:30
• ·         Wash lunch dishes.
• ·         Chicken done and shredded, Macaroni cooked and drained, 
• ·         Washed all those dishes so I could make the cheese sauce. 
• ·         Grate cheese, make sauce, mix everything together, put in fridge.
• ·         Make jamaica tea.
• ·         Go upstairs, put rugs in washing machine--get pans from kitchen. Realize bugs are everywhere--spray down kitchen.
• ·         Wash vegetables, cut cucumbers and carrots, make pickle liquid put all in fridge
• ·         Set out butter to soften, go clean bathroom
• ·         Container arrives (yay!) along with about 10 guys to unload two truck-loads of stuff. Go watch some of the commotion, take guys water and snacks.
• ·         Wash pans and bowls so I can make frosting.
• ·         Make frosting, frost cake. 
• ·         Do all dishes--realize not enough plates for company.
• ·         Go upstairs to get more plates/knives/forks/cups. Put rugs in dryer. 
• ·         Realize bug spray all over these dishes from upstairs. Wash them.
• ·         Start sweeping living room, move chair and find almost dead mouse. 
• ·         Run into hallway and wait for help--but everyone is busy and that is dumb.
• ·         Go back and smush mouse with long handled dust pan. Be very grossed out. It squirts. 
• ·         Throw away dead mouse and rest of trash while I'm at it. 
• ·         Dump out all the baskets in the house checking for more mice. 
• ·         Finish sweeping.
• ·         Mop up mouse goo.
• ·         Get different mop and mop kitchen and living room. 
• ·         Wash out gross mop. And proceed to bleach my hands about a million times which really burns my cuts. 
• ·         Guys arrive dripping wet (it started pouring) who need keys because a truck ran into power lines and the repair men need to turn on lights to see if they fixed it right. (yes, in the rain) Give them towels and keys.
• ·         Rearrange tables with chairs from upstairs, put on tablecloth realize haven't put food in oven yet--
• ·         Turn oven to "temperature of the sun" and put food in. 
• ·         guests arrive. 

Yep, that’s even more bustling around, and still nothing more exciting and glamorous than “made dinner and cleaned up”. 

And then there are other days where I have no tasks to complete at all. Seriously. I can just sit in my house and write ridiculously long blog posts, and chat with people who mill about in the hallway outside. That is certainly not making any brochure.

Don’t misunderstand: I am not mocking the work or the workers that do “brochure worthy” works. Praise God for the soldiers in the vanguard who scale mountains, and build cathedrals, and beat back evil in powerful, memorable, laudable ways! Praise God for the encouragement, inspiration and celebration of God’s power that can come from hearing about the accomplishments of faithful champions.

Maybe you, like me, are more often left sweeping up after the soldiers tromp through. 

Maybe you, like me, forget that can be God’s work too. 

Ya see, so often the reason I want to do good works is to glorify me. And so often the real work that needs to be done, the work that will glorify HIM, just isn’t that much fun.

Are you a worker who will never make the brochure? Are you faithfully visiting the nursing home week after week and can’t find anyone to go with you? Are you writing to some prisoner who still doesn’t seem to be getting it? Are you wiping snotty noses and explaining why biting your sister isn’t acceptable and feeling completely alone? Are you working your phone tree once again, realizing it’s another quarter when nobody will teach that class? Are you modeling a Godly response to a spouse who doesn’t seem to be making an effort? Are you coming early to set up chairs and staying late to turn out lights, even though someone else promised they would? Are you listening compassionately, patiently, once again to that friend who is stuck in the same old trap again?

Are you doing work that will never make the brochures?

 Matthew 6:1-4 “Take care! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired, for then you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. ² When you give a gift to a beggar, don’t shout about it as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you in all earnestness, they have received all the reward they will ever get. ³ But when you do a kindness to someone, do it secretly—don’t tell your left hand what your right hand is doing. ⁴ And your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you.