An ambitious priest I once knew had only one ambition, not to change people for the better, but to become a bishop, and when year after year his attempts at becoming one failed, he spoke to me about demonic forces that kept his ambition at bay. “No sir,” I told him, “When you can’t blossom in the small jobs God gives you to do, God won’t promote you to bigger duties!”
“What do you mean?” he asked angrily.
“Your present church hardly has anyone attending,” I said, “because you are least interested in being a simple priest to your people. When you treat that job with respect, then bigger ones await you!”
As I spoke to him, I remembered the famous words of Martin Luther King, who said, “If it falls to your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music ... Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his streets well’.”
Powerful words, isn’t it? And even as I ponder on the words of this civil rights leader, I remember my own dad in my childhood singing the lyrics of Ned Miller, and so clearly can I hear my father’s distinct voice filling the room as he sang,
He couldn't move a mountain
Nor pull down a big old tree-ee
But my daddy became a mighty big man
With a simple philosophy
Do what you do, do well boy, Do what you do do we-ell
Give your love and all of your heart, And do what you do do well
Sometimes he'd kiss my mother, And hold her tenderly
Then he'd look across the top of her head, Then he'd wink and say to me
Do what you do do well boy, Do what you do do we-ell
Give your love and all of your heart, And do what you do do well
Well he was a man of laughter, But a tragedy came by
The tears ran free and he'd say to me, Never be afraid to cry
Do what you do do well boy, Do what you do do we-ell
Give your love and all of your heart, And do what you do do well
Today I still remember, Just like yesterday
'Bout a mighty big man with a mighty big heart, And a mighty few words to say
Do what you do do well boy, Do what you do do we-ell
Give your love and all of your heart, And do what you do do well
Do what you do do well...
Yes dear reader, whether you are a sweeper, or a painter, sweep or paint like a Michael Angelo..!
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and author. He blogs at www.bobsbanter.com and can be reached at bobsbanter@gmail.com
