I get to the maintenance office I work in and I hear Glen say, "Megan, Bill was wondering if you'd clean the fridge."
Wow. No. That was my first thought. Anytime I see any of them go into that fridge it just looks scary and dark and that's just not what secretaries do.
But I heard myself say ok. I figured that I spent most of my work hours reading and waiting for Dave to need me make a copy, call a company, or drop something off in the mail room. All tasks that require very little effort and very little time.
I bravely marched to the fridge, smiled to reassure myself, and opened it.
Wow.
To say it was bad would be an understatement. Plastic bags as 'lunchboxes' for the guys, but who knows how long some of them had been in there. Half-drunk bottles of pop and a mysterious-looking brown liquid spilled on every shelf of the door. Tupperware containing food that looked older than my time at Covenant. Some bizarre-looking salad dressing that expired in 2007. A never-touched sandwich that was completely green. A little cup that contained a substance comparable to baby formula except that it'd been in there a while. Sprite two years old. A long-forgotten pasta that stuck to the bowl. One blue bowl smelled up the room so fast just after cracking it open that I stopped fast and threw the whole thing away, not caring that someone was losing a bowl (after all, they have been without it for several months anyway).
Though surrounded by the horrible smells, the gag-worthy mold, and the questionable spills on the door, I realized that God was calling me to praise Him through cleaning that fridge. He gave me that task and I could have either refused to do it or done it with a bad attitude. But I guess He was showing me how we need to do everything for His honor and glory.
And so what could've been one of the worst tasks I've ever had to do at Covenant turned out to be great fun. I had Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men stuck in my head which is, well, it's just an awesome song to have stuck in your head for any occasion because it put me in such a good mood. I laughed every time I found something especially disgusting or I would go scold whichever guy admitted to having left if in the fridge so many months ago. I kept running out to the sink to pour away the half empty Gatorade bottle or the white-looking pasty liquid I found in an applesauce jar. Rachel was so kind and helped me wash each shelf and drawer individually in the sink (rather than just wiping them down). I went in and out of the facilities office several times borrowing more and more clean rags.
But it was fun. It was the highlight of my day. And let me tell you, afterwards that fridge was completely spotless. I could sell it brand new in Sears and no one would tell the difference between the new fridges. And after all the food I took out, I put only two things back in because they were the only two things that had not reached their expiration date.
Doing gross, uncomfortable, unappealing jobs can be made so much better with the knowledge that we are doing them to glorify God.
Thank you, Lord, for that fridge.
Wow. No. That was my first thought. Anytime I see any of them go into that fridge it just looks scary and dark and that's just not what secretaries do.
But I heard myself say ok. I figured that I spent most of my work hours reading and waiting for Dave to need me make a copy, call a company, or drop something off in the mail room. All tasks that require very little effort and very little time.
I bravely marched to the fridge, smiled to reassure myself, and opened it.
Wow.
To say it was bad would be an understatement. Plastic bags as 'lunchboxes' for the guys, but who knows how long some of them had been in there. Half-drunk bottles of pop and a mysterious-looking brown liquid spilled on every shelf of the door. Tupperware containing food that looked older than my time at Covenant. Some bizarre-looking salad dressing that expired in 2007. A never-touched sandwich that was completely green. A little cup that contained a substance comparable to baby formula except that it'd been in there a while. Sprite two years old. A long-forgotten pasta that stuck to the bowl. One blue bowl smelled up the room so fast just after cracking it open that I stopped fast and threw the whole thing away, not caring that someone was losing a bowl (after all, they have been without it for several months anyway).
Though surrounded by the horrible smells, the gag-worthy mold, and the questionable spills on the door, I realized that God was calling me to praise Him through cleaning that fridge. He gave me that task and I could have either refused to do it or done it with a bad attitude. But I guess He was showing me how we need to do everything for His honor and glory.
And so what could've been one of the worst tasks I've ever had to do at Covenant turned out to be great fun. I had Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men stuck in my head which is, well, it's just an awesome song to have stuck in your head for any occasion because it put me in such a good mood. I laughed every time I found something especially disgusting or I would go scold whichever guy admitted to having left if in the fridge so many months ago. I kept running out to the sink to pour away the half empty Gatorade bottle or the white-looking pasty liquid I found in an applesauce jar. Rachel was so kind and helped me wash each shelf and drawer individually in the sink (rather than just wiping them down). I went in and out of the facilities office several times borrowing more and more clean rags.
But it was fun. It was the highlight of my day. And let me tell you, afterwards that fridge was completely spotless. I could sell it brand new in Sears and no one would tell the difference between the new fridges. And after all the food I took out, I put only two things back in because they were the only two things that had not reached their expiration date.
Doing gross, uncomfortable, unappealing jobs can be made so much better with the knowledge that we are doing them to glorify God.
Thank you, Lord, for that fridge.
