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This is part of a series on Spiritual Practices. PAST
Taboo Breaking
FUTURE Possibilities
Fasting
- Day of rest
- Journaling
- Misc prayer practices
- Recitation
- Singing/music
- Silence
MENIAL SERVICEI once heard Michael Medved on the radio (that was years ago when I was a radio listener) say, “I love picking up trash. It’s a simple act, and nobody can argue it isn’t a good thing.”
Litter pickup is a form of anonymous menial service. Other forms include:
Toilet/restroom cleanup (including public restrooms)
- Re-stocking neglected items at the store
- Shopping cart roundup
- Shining somebody’s shoes
- Rinsing somebody’s tub
- Leaving a penny in the change dish at the convenience store
- Wiping under your restaurant table
I would think we would not want to make any of these into rituals. We don’t want to nurse any Obssessive-Compulsive tendencies we may have
I, Tom Haws, could ease a human’s burden and brighten her/his day by pausing my the tape of my life, taking a moment to think of him/her, and then resuming. I think it’s in the continual being willing to see and pause that we grow, as much as in the planned and ritual service (though that is powerful too). Your thoughts on menial service? Stories? Don’t be shy. I will share if you share.
To make a bullet list, do this
[ list ]
[ * ] blah
[ * ] blah blah
[ * ] blah blah blah
[ / list ]
I have some to add. I have read books and articles about the daily tasks of motherhood and how they can be turned into (seen as) acts of service to the family. It isn’t anonamous, but sometimes it feels like it is. *holding a crying child
*preparing a meal
*washing dishes
*folding laundry
*mopping
*pacing the floor with a fussy baby
*reading to someone (a book you have no interest in)
*changing diapers
I will freely admit that I have had to pray through these daily acts on occasion. When I do them out of devotion and Charity I feel so good and don’t have trouble doing it. When I am obsessed with the things *I* want to do I get frustrated, upset and feel put-out. I think menial service is a way we can “lose ourselves.” I also know that they teach us charity and I feel that charity is the most important thing to learn in this life.
I think that as we fill our cups these small acts of service come naturally. In my experience it has been very important to have a full cup in order to best serve my children. What is really fun is when I can then have my children share in the experience of menial service with me.
I think they are pretty random, not a list or something planned, just something you see and you do it in a moment of wanting to do something nice for someone or something. – Look a youth in the eye and give them a compliment
I think menial service is incredibly important – another one of life’s great paradoxes. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that I believe in the servant model of Jesus’ life – which makes all service important, especially the stuff that those who won’t deign to do it call menial. To me, the menial is the heart of the Gospel – the Good News that our menial concerns matter to He who controls the universe and should matter equally to His children.
I also think this probably is where we fail to understand Jesus the most in our practical lives.
There were recent times in my life, long periods of time, when the best part of going to church was putting away the chairs at the end of the three-hour block. just me wrote:the daily tasks of motherhood
This was at the front of my mind as I introduced the topic. I just didn’t know how to address it. I think it is a major theme of this topic. It brings to focus the matter of heart that you expressed so well.
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