My older daughter was assigned to clean the restroom at school after six-graders graduated two days ago. Before starting to work on this filthy (she called it) bathroom cleaning job, she prepared a filter mask and a plastic glove and perhaps some other things I didn’t know of.

After school she told us that the job was awful and the most worst part was that her partner kept complaining about the toilet cleaning but didn’t do the job at all. Then I shared with her how I had cleaned the toilets with my classmates when I was in grade school and even taught my school children how to clean them up when I was an elementary school teacher. I also compared the toilet cleaning job to how Jesus has cleansed us of our sins which are nasty and terrible.

On the other hand, I also mentioned the apostle Paul’s words in Philippians 3:8, “For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as dung, so that I may gain Christ.” Paul viewed all things as dung or feces, trying to get rid of them including power, fame, honor, slander or humiliation. Everything good and bad was worthless and distasteful to him. His ambition is life was to embrace Jesus and abide in Jesus only. Let’s learn from Paul’s “Dung Theory”, counting all things as dirty feces in order to win Jesus.

At the end of conversation I reminded my daughter that it was not your teacher, but God himself appointed this cleaning work to you.