A Dirty Job Worth Doing

The dirtiest job I ever had was when I worked at Jiffy Lube.

Don't get me wrong.  It was a good job.  I got paid decent enough and it worked great with my college class schedule.  I even learned a few things about cars, which says quite a lot about someone who knows almost nothing about auto repair.

However, truth be told, I wasn't very good at it.  I could change oil just fine, but beyond that, I was downright dangerous to cars.  I once fried my wife's (then girlfriend) electrical system in her car when I tried to install headlights.  Another time,
I lowered the lift onto the catch pan, which put the lift out of commission and seriously hampered business for a week.  When I talked to customers, I didn't know enough about cars to give them any confidence in buying our "extra" services. 

Amazingly, they kept me on despite my ineptitude at the job.  I think the managers trusted me to be honest and it was good having a "college boy" around.  Besides, I always showed up on time, never called in sick, didn't complain and always gave plenty of notice for days off. 

Each night, I went home filthy.  Oil residue covered my face.  Black stains coated my fingers.  Burnt oil wafted off my clothes and fingernails.  Even scrubbing with heavy soap only dulled the smell.  When driving home, I had to be careful not to touch my eye or mouth unless I wanted an unpleasant sensation.

It, quite literally, was the dirtiest job I ever had.  I didn't really enjoy working there, yet, each day I went back to change oil, wait on customers and due my duty. 

Jesus commissions us for a job.  He tells believers to go therefore and tell others about Jesus.  Often we treat this as a dirty job.  We don't want to go and do it.  Sadly, we frequently don't.

In Luke 16, in the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, the Rich Man begs Abraham to send him or Lazarus back to warn his family about impending judgment.  Abraham replies that if they won't believe scripture, they won't believe someone risen from the dead.

In effect, he's saying our job is to tell others.  If they won't believe the living and the scripture we share, they won't believe even a dead man returning from the grave.  It is our job as believers to share Jesus, but too often we wait, hoping someone else will do the job for us.

The Rich Man waited until it was too late to do anything about it.  If we're not careful, we will too.

Evangelism is a dirty job.  It's often messy.  It requires us to do things we might not normally do.  We're the ones God calls to do it.  It's our job.

How are you doing at it?  It's a tough question we must all consider.

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