Both my nephew and his wife are diligent workers. They work hard at their jobs and are great at what they do as they continue moving up their respective corporate ladders.
They also are hard-working home improvers. They moved into their grandmother’s old house and have gutted, rearranged and rebuilt almost everything, therefore the place looks brand new.
Both Steve and Jenn are in their 30s. One major thing that changed for them during the pandemic was they both started working at home, in that recently upgraded house. That changed several dynamics, including how they interact with their tiny dog.
They used to leave him on his own all day, but now that they are in the house, he appears to have been somewhat spoiled. To aggravate that issue, Steven and Jenn also decided to start a family. They now have a sweet baby daughter.
All this to say that my sister-in-law called the other day and was sharing with me that Steve is back at work in his firm’s office, but Jenn is still working from home. The tiny dog has become jealous of the new baby, possibly because, for years, my nephew would carry the dog around tucked in the cradle of his arm, like a tiny satchel of goodness. To his credit, the dog has been pretty good with his new situation, even as he is getting up in years.
Jenn was working in her home office the other day and could hear the dog outside the door prancing in the hallway wanting to be let out, but she was on a long conference call and needed to focus so she had to ignore the sound of doggy nails prancing and dancing on the wood. Normally, since the dog is tiny, if he has to go, it isn’t much to clean up anyway, so she wasn’t too concerned.
After her long telephone call, she opened the office door to clean up whatever business she found, but as she looked down the hall, she didn’t see anything but the dog lying quietly in his bed. She stepped onto the carpet runner barefoot and was horrified. Apparently, during the phone call, whatever the little dog had left on the carpet runner was noted by the robotic cleaning system, which came out and whirred the poo deep into and all down the carpet runner – poor Jenn. She had to drag the runner out to the porch before going to retrieve the robot and put it out, as well. She knew she would have to deal with cleaning both items after work. What a nasty business.
My sister-in-law and I laughed until tears were running down our cheeks. What a handy little robot, indeed. Can’t we all use a time-saver like that?
As I thought about this story, which still makes me laugh, it seemed to be such an interesting analogy of life itself. If, as we go about life, we leave a bit of “dirt’ here or there, in our church, in our workplace, in our relationships, somehow when our back is turned, the dirt spreads. It can get deep into the base of our proverbial carpet, and then it is up to us or someone else to clean the mess we left behind.
The problem with the mess we leave with just a little “dirt’ is that icky surprise an unsuspecting person gets when their foot hits the soiled carpet. You can’t see the problem, but it is there. A small bit of the “dirt” of discontent can permeate our pretty carpet runner quickly.
First, the boss notices attitude problems between the employees or feels they are suddenly disgruntled at their jobs, or the pastor reads a prayer request that appears more of an accusation about a church member than a plea to God. Neither leader was in on planting the dirt, but now, they are forced to figure out where it came from, clean it, and hopefully sanitize the situation.
Therefore, this proverb’s moral is that the dirt goes where it should with the other dirt, at the bottom of the trash can until the disposal company comes to haul it away. We should make a conscious effort to not leave dirt behind for others to step in.
As Christians, we are to be the fresh air unbelievers lack. The joy of Jesus should show in every action we take. The air flowing behind us should feel refreshing for anyone in our wake.
I recently read an article about Kay Smith, not the singer, but the now-deceased wife of Chuck Smith, the pastor who started the Calvary Chapel movement, in the 1970s. As a pastor’s wife she taught and mentored many of the new pastors’ wives when the movement spread widely to both coasts. They all said her words to them never varied when it came to speaking, working and living with others – ask yourself if Jesus would approve of the action you are about to take, and if the answer is yes, go ahead.
She said if we would run our actions and interactions through the filter of “would Jesus approve,” we would not go astray. What wise and sage advice.
As Christians, we should let our lives reflect only what would please Jesus, as if He is watching each move because, of course, He is.
ED. NOTE: Amy Patsch writes from Ocean City.
