Update: Dishes, Dishes, Dishes

Good morning or afternoon!

Info Update:
I moved into Canyon one week ago, and wanted to update my life for you all. I have a job working as a dishwasher (or dish wash specialist extraordinaire—my definition) in the lodge where we do the dishes for EVERY restaurant in the area. I’ve worked 8 hours everyday since Saturday and will until this coming Sunday. My hands feel burned and swollen, I’m constantly soaked in water, and the job is repetitive. Yet, I have learned immensely from the opportunity so far, but more on that later.
No services were held last Sunday due to work demands and the mountains of snow on the ground. Yes, it’s June and we have snow. Yes, I’m sick of it. No, it won’t stop anytime soon. The ampitheater where we hold services is still under snow, and there is no indoor alternative up here where we can schedule services. So, needless to say we haven’t even gotten started. On a good note, we’ve assembled a small team, and have a working basis for planning the services. We even added a new team member! A girl attended church in Mammoth (North of my location), and met the pastor who also serves as our director for this area too. Once a connection was made, he referred her to our site to help lead worship services. She’s very sweet and will fit in nicely with our team.
I have a roommate now. He is from the Czech Republic and is a nice guy. This is his first time in an English-speaking country, but he’s very clear speaking. I’ve met some more people and my co-workers are really good. Most are from Malaysia and North Carolina—what a combination! In all seriousness, work has helped acclimate to the schedule up here.

Reflection—Dishes, Dishes, Dishes

As stated, my job up here is very simple as a dishwasher. Here’s the central dogma of my job; take the dirty dish, rinse off excess food, set on conveyor belt into the giant cleaning machine, take dish off of machine, put dish in its proper place. Easy, right? Indeed, my job is very simple. The difficulty begins when you wash the same dish over and over for 8 hours straight.
When I first began washing I scrubbed every dish as fast as possible and completed the dogma as quickly as possible. Truth be told, I impressed myself. I even grew frustrated when other co-workers didn’t wash as fast. I could keep the conveyor belt moving without any delay. I was fast. But after about 30 minutes, that pace could not work, and I slowed down. My head ached, my body slowing, seriously, didn’t I JUST wash you. And I still had 7 ½ hours to go.
My job does not ask me to wash one dish well. It demands that I wash the dishes as they come, over and over for 8 straight hours. My boss does not demand speed but consistency. Oh, I know, I hate the word too. 8 hours of the same thing? How can you do it? Do you not go insane? The answer to all is ‘yes’. We do it. In fact, I believe we have the best dish crew in Yellowstone. Why? Because we work consistently. One person pulls dishes, another cleans them, and another loads them—all day. We take whatever comes and do it, over and over again with the same level of enthusiasm as before. Instead of making one dish shiny, we clean the dishes consistently for as long as it takes.
So too is the cadence of life. Whatever we do, whoever we are, life demands we wash dishes with consistency. It’s the difference between infatuation at the beginning of a marriage and the 50th anniversary—the success of one dish vs. 8 hours of washing that dish. Life is washing dishes over and over again. It moves from one dish to another, and often very quickly. The only pace that will sustain us for years is the consistency of washing the dishes over and over again. If we want a significant life, avoid needing something new to do, and do what you do with consistency. If you’re a student in school, study consistently. If you work, do your best work consistently. If you do both, do them both with excellence and consistency--not slacking on one or the other. If you minister, be there—over and over again. If you’re in whatever relationship, be with that person over and over again. No one is impressed by our one-time moment of success. We write a paper the night before and get an A. So what. That doesn’t mean we’re brilliant or learned anything. In fact, it means we’re too juvenile to actually try and work on it over a long period of time (and I’m guilty of this, but I think it’s worth sharing with others too). Our jobs don’t care if we do one project really well one time. Nope, what really makes a significant life is aiming to do what we do again and again, the best way we can, and in whatever way we can. It means planning your days and time in a way that allows you to wash the dish over and over. ‘Yea, but I have a billion other dishes Trey’. Indeed, so when a cook needs an unexpected particular dish at a given moment, I wash that dish and send it through, make sure he/she gets it, and go back to the work. This life demands priorities. But, I think the problems arise when we get overwhelmed with too many dishes in front of us or don’t know where to begin.

And so insert failure—procrastination, failure, lackluster effort, laziness, depression, and let the mountain of dishes look demoralizing.

I have this problem too, so I get it. Yet this is precisely where the Gospel speaks in a profound way. God himself designated the cadence of dishwashing. He demands consistency and gives us dishes to wash (Read Genesis and see what God gives Adam and Eve to do in the garden). He always gives us dishes because he loves us wants us to love others forever. He is the manager and the head chef, and he needs dishes washed so he can properly serve people. But what if we don’t wash the dishes—what if we suck at it? We don’t always finish the task—sometimes we drop dishes, forget to wash, get pissed at being a dishwasher instead of a server, or lazily grab a drink. Yet, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that we don’t wash the dishes, but he gives them anyway because he wants to—he really believes we can love people over a long period of time.
If he knows we will fumble the dish, why give it to us? Because he loves us. He initiates love, we don’t. In fact, we are really bad at love. There is a hidden grace in the dishwashing of life. The context of all dishwashing is the love of God. It extends beyond ourselves and flows into the life of others—that’s why dishwashing is necessary. The grace to us is that despite our multiple failures, he gives us the dish anyway. We may hate the dishes given, we may hate the grind, but he still wants us to do it. Even if we know it might not work out, he says, ‘I want you to keep it anyway’. I think of Peter after denying Christ, receives the keys to the Church. Peter? Why not John or one of the other disciples who didn’t bail when it got tough? It all begins with the initiation of Christ., and he sustains us.
I can honestly say that what sustains me here in Yellowstone is the reality of God’s love and his desire to love others through my being here. By no means do I do it well, but it is a daily reality that sits in my mind. Yes, he uses dishwashers like us for this task. It doesn’t matter if we serve tables, cook, or prepare the food—we do it because we love people. I scrub the dish because I want to know what it means to love, fail at it, and have God start all over again. And here’s some good news, at the end of the day, it is God who washes us—his dishes—so that we can be plates that serve his love to the world. It’s not all on you, but he wants us to enter into his love. Everyone tells us love is what matters and wins, then go do it. Over, and over, and over, and over again.