Thankless Jobs

Today I did a bunch of thankless jobs: Vacuumed, scrubbed and polished all the tile and hardwood floors, cleaned both bathrooms, washed all the rugs and welcome mats, vacuumed and washed the car and swept the garage. The are all jobs that no one comes up to you afterwards and says, "Hey - those floors are really shining ... Well done." So you spend hours on your knees cleaning cause you know it needs done, but yet know in your heart if you didn't do it, no one would really know the difference anyways. For my sake, it looks fantastic and smells wonderful. It gives me great satisfaction to know I've done all this Spring cleaning.

Jesus did a thankless job. I'm not talking about dying for us on the cross. That has the gratitude of every sinful soul, I am talking about washing the disciples' feet. Washing feet was the job for the lowliest of the lows. First century feet were nasty. Walking around in leather sandals on dusty roads took its toll, so first thing folks did when they got home from work or visited someone was wash their feet. If they entered a wealthy person's home, it was the family slave that washed guests' feet. And here was the King of Kings, God Incarnate, with a towel around his waist washing the disciples' feet. And they were mortified. Matter of fact, Peter flat out says, "You will never wash my feet!" (John 13:7) to which Jesus replies that if He doesn't Peter cannot have a part in Him. Jesus was showing through this most humble of acts how to be a selfless servant. While it is doubtful the disciples thanked Christ after this foot washing, you can be sure they thanked Him to the end of their days for the lesson they learned that day.

You will do countless thankless jobs in your lifetime. And while you may never be acknowledged or noticed for them, God absolutely sees. And Scripture tells us in Colossians 3:17 "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Thankless jobs we do are a way we can metaphorically wash Christ's feet. And what an honor that would be! Now do I think that Jesus looked down from Heaven at my shiny floors and said, "Wow, Jill, thanks!"? Nope, but I'm sure He appreciated the praise songs I sang to Him while I did it and the prayers said while accomplishing those tasks. 

On that note, this isn't the first time I wrote this devotion. It's the second time through. The blog site went down at some point while writing this and stopped automatically saving the work, even when I purposely saved it to be sure it was there. When I refreshed the page, nearly the entire blog for this day was gone. So I started from scratch and wrote it yet again. Was the first copy appreciated? Nope. Had I not written these last couple sentences you would never know additional time was required to rewrite it. A thankless job ... but done for God's glory, so that's okay.

Discussion: What are some jobs you do regularly that go unnoticed? Do you tackle them as if doing them for the Lord?

Prayer: Father, we know you see everything we do. We pray Lord that as we do the mundanes tasks of our day, that we do them as  if doing them for you. May you be pleased with us, Lord. In Jesus, Amen.