[This reflection by David Makanjuola was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 29/Jan/2023]
Some days, life just doesn’t seem fair. You try to help people and they take you for granted, and don’t appreciate the effort you put into the things you do. Life seems to be one of ‘survival of the fittest’ and ‘you have to look after number one’.
These were the thoughts going through Dormy’s mind. He was a doormat and was getting fed up of feeling downtrodden. Life seemed to be just one of people walking all over him and rubbing their dirt off on him.
He had been brought to a church called HBC by a member of the welcome team and had pride of place next to the front door. He had been so pleased at the start, but more recently, things had started to irritate him.
After the Sunday service one day, he decided he would talk to Henry, the vacuum cleaner. Henry had a smile on his face most of the time and had been around in the church much longer than Dormy.
Henry listened to what Dormy had to say, was silent for a while and then said “Dormy, before you came to HBC, particularly when it rained, there was a trail of mud as people walked in and I remember having to do a lot of work cleaning up after services and other meetings. Since you came, I haven’t noticed that. It’s interesting that just the other day, I was talking to Mabel, the mop, and we were commenting on how you have this ability to make every one who interacts with you come away cleaner than when they came in. In fact, one could say that you seem to make them better for having met you”.
Dormy had never looked at things this way before. He thanked Henry and thought a bit more about this. He looked at the bits of mud stuck to him and remembered he had heard at one of the church services at Easter of someone who washed the feet of his friends at a meal they were having. Dormy smiled and said to himself “you know, if he could wash their feet, I’m happy to clean their shoes”.
Do you feel treated like a doormat sometimes? Do you sometimes want to let off steam about this? Do you want to stand up for your rights? It is a bit controversial with what is going on in the news about the various strikes at the moment, but it is worth thinking that although you might be treated like a doormat, if you have the ability to bring out the best in others, and if everyone was a better person after they met you, perhaps being a doormat is actually not a bad thing after all.
As Phil reminded us in the sermon on Sunday, there was one who when he was pushed to his limits didn’t retaliate, or seek retribution, or stand up for his rights, but rather said, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”
May God grant us all His wisdom and grace when we find ourselves in difficult and challenging situations, to choose to show love and mercy. That is when we are truly most like Christ.
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Contributed by David Makanjuola; © the Author
