“Are you fricken serious?!”
That was my thought as the floor I had wiped down 2 times already was again covered in water.
Let’s back up a touch.
Each Monday and Wednesday our squad of 21 pile into a mini van that is suppose to fit 12 and head off to one of two places. The first place is called Los Papitos, a school for children who have some type of special needs and the second place is a senior center.
The senior center is not my first choice usually, but this day there wasn’t another option, due to school being closed. I had been there once before and made good friends with an old radio reporter named Domingo. I went looking for him but found that he already had some visitors there for the day. Not wanting to waste a perfectly good chance to do some good I began to search for my next option and found it serving in the kitchen as clean up crew.
The crew was helping clean the medium shed size kitchen and the dining room which held four huge round wooden tables. The clean up consisted of wiping widows, washing tables, scrubbing floors and sanitizing dishes. There were 4 of us that were knocking out the jobs like baseballs at a home run derby and things were looking good. Then came a curve ball though that I wasn’t expecting; clearing floors.
The way the floors are cleaned here is a touch different then the usual mop and bucket. Instead it is done by bringing a hose is spraying down the entire floor, soaping it up, scrub-a-dub-dubbing it and then sweep the water into the hall way where it will run into the court yard.
Cool something different and new to me. I can dig it.
The floors were lathered and scrubbed so the crew, which had now dwindled down to two of us (Julie King and myself) due to the amount of booms available, began to sweep out the soapy water from the dining room into the hallway. It took a bit of time and was a touch draining but we got the job done. 
Hot, sweaty, tired and a touch proud of a job well done I thought “All done.”
We stood back looking at our nicely cleaned floor and noticed a puddle forming by the kitchen, so I went and investigated. In the 12×8 foot kitchen laid a good inch of water and the only way out was through the clean dining room floor and into the hall way. We sighed deeply and began to sweep out the water on to our clean floor and again into the hallway.
Round 2 was annoying, but taken care of.
Then before I could even take time to look at the clean floor the lady, who had failed to mention the 7 gallons of water in the kitchen, came in spraying down all the walls with a hose! She then made a motion that demonstrated how to scrub the walls. At this point I am tired, a touch pissed off, hot, not wanting to sweep and am thinking “Are you fricken serious?!”
I was about to throw down my broom and show this lady a little American WWE Smack down when a thought occurred to me. What a golden opportunity I have before me. I have two options I can make here:
1. Drop the broom and throw this lady into a Zader bomb like she has never seen (I’m only kidding) and drop walk out.
Or
2. Throw a smile on (as seen above), maybe sing a song and scrub the walls and wipe the floor for a third time with an unexplainable joy.
Well I am not on a plane ride home right now so as you guessed I choose number two. I just took a deep breath looked at my crew member and then began scrubbing. I was talking to Julie trying to be encouraging and kept saying just serve with a smile. We talked about our frustration with the lady and how things could have gone better and smoother, we sang a song for a little bit and just laughed all over our frustration away. At the end I knew that we had done the job correctly. We didn’t have a sour puss attitude but rather had a joyful time serving as the hands and feet of God.
There are times in all of our lives when we can easily give into doing things with a bad attitude. However, when we serve we are called to do so joyfully as if we are serving the Lord directly. When we serve someone, in a task that can be quantified for example, we may think our attitude doesn’t make a big difference. Who cares if I do this half heartedly the job will still get done. Who cares if I am mad at the person I am working for? Who cares if I am doing this so I can be noticed? It is still good and helpful service.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
19Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.
Romans 14:17-19
I am not saying I have the perfect mind set when I serve every time, but I am trying too. All I ask is that you check attitude and mind set too. It may change the outcome of your service more then you think.
