In the Trenches

When I was in college, I worked for a while at a swimming pool store. And part of my job there was to go to people's houses and clean their pools ... yes, when you stop laughing, I was a pool girl. While it was a great job for the most part, at least when I got to go to the homes of the affluent who kept their pools sparkling clean, there were times when I had to deal with pools that were ... well, they were just plain old gross ... dead critters in them, brown or green water, slimy walls ... yep, just gross. At the nice clean pools, I was often invited by the owners to take a dip when I finished my cleaning duties, and those days my job was fun and enjoyable. But the days when I had to work on the nasty pools in the blistering hot sun, those were the days that I truly earned every dollar that I was paid and then some. Those were the days that I did my time in the trenches ... hard, tiring, physical labor.

I have a ton of respect for folks who work in the trenches day in and day out, and I'm not just talking about physical labor kinds of jobs. I'm talking about nurses and teachers and cashiers and servers in restaurants and fire fighters and pastors and secretaries and ... and ... and ... all the people who work hard at their jobs every single day and more often than not, get no recognition or even a shred of appreciation for what they do. In fact, many of them receive criticism rather than praise on an almost daily basis. They live and breathe and work in the trenches ... every single day.

I'll be honest, I'd rather not be a trench person some days ... I'd rather live like the recently wed Prince William and Kate Middleton with anything I desired being at my fingertips for the asking. But the reality is that at least for now, my place is in the trenches, working hard to keep at it and doing the best I can every day. And you know what? Sometimes being in the trenches just stinks ... it's just hard ... it's just lonely. But you know what else? Sometimes being in the trenches ... well, sometimes being in the trenches helps me to learn some valuable lessons that I would never learn elsewhere ... teaches me patience and empathy for my fellow trenchmates ... humbles me to the very core of my soul. I know that God wants me in the trenches ... He wants me to do the job He has created me to do ... He wants me to work as hard as I can for as long as He wants me to work.

While I'm here in the trenches, Lord ... show me what you want me to learn, teach me to wait patiently and to feel what others feel, humble my heart and break my will ... to realize that if I look up from down here in the trenches, the only One I should see is You.