Street Sweeping for the Glory of God

This is a re-post of an entry I wrote in 2010. In honor of MLK Day, I thought I would bring it out of the archives.


"If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well." 

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

What if we lived our lives according to this principle? Imagine how much the world would change if we started to realize our seemingly mundane jobs and responsibilities were more than jobs and responsibilities— but that they were each a divine calling, purposefully given to us by God and worthy of our greatest effort. We would never settle for mediocrity or "just good enough." Any dread, boredom, or negativity we normally associate with these activities would succumb to joy, enthusiasm, and the determination to give our all. Except for sin, every part of our lives is an opportunity to serve God faithfully and diligently. We should tackle even the most insignificant or undesirable of tasks with the same fervor Beethoven brought to a composition or Michelangelo brought to an easel. Using the abilities God has given us, let's strive to make everything we produce a masterpiece.