The joy found in cleaning the church

I hate house work.  I do it grudging almost every time, about the only thing I hate worse is camping.  A post for tomorrow.

So I find it interesting that  I love cleaning our chapels.  It is just a nice quiet experience, me and a vacuum cleaner in a zone of our own going up and down the pews, picking up a pencil here, a grape there, and cheerios everywhere. 

It amazes me how much crap is left on our carpets in the chapel, I usually look guiltily around our own seating to ensure we have not left any piles.  Thankfully it does not happen often.  Still I know often that we can be cavalier with how we treat our buildings (wander around some of the class rooms around Easter/Christmas when there are crumbs, chocolate and other goodies everywhere.

So why do I enjoy this service more than any other?  I find it is not stressful, it is a demand that only comes up occasionally and other service projects my two older boys have always volunteered for happily.  So for me it has become a family affair.  That in and of itself makes it worth while.

One of my other reasons, not an unimportant one, is that it allows me a quiet period in a church where kids are not pestering, or needing moved, or having to listen to anyone else.  In a way it is like the celestial room, where peacefulness reigns and one can consider life at different level.  Often I find it almost soothing and on days where my concerns are overcoming my life it is a welcome break. 

So I if I could recommend one act of service, which has a feeling for me of perfect serenity, pick up a vacuum and suck up the cheerios.