The Sink

I'll be the first to admit, I am not the best roommate in the world. I have a tendency to not immediately clean up my messes, let dishes soak in the sink a little more than they should, and eat people's food that I think has been sitting in the fridge too long (sometimes "too long" is a couple hours). I'm not perfect. But I forget that just because I accept my imperfections, doesn't mean I have to make my roommates deal with the repercussions.

So when one of my roommates sent out an e-mail to the other three of us detailing every mess I had made that weekend and how we all need to abide by our roommate contract, I was super offended. How dare she not realize that I am trying to do the dishes in a more timely manner or that sometimes I honestly, accidentally forget my towel on the floor in the bathroom. My passive aggressive-ism that only seems to flare up when it comes to roommate ordeals began to rear its ugly head. How long could I leave that huge pile in the sink before she got fed up and did them herself, or even better, openly confronted me? Those dishes weren't even all mine! Maybe I would start using all paper plates from now on, or I could start rearranging her things in the shower. My plotting started to get out of hand...

But thank goodness, this all happened on a Sunday and God wasn't finished showing me the lessons He wanted to teach me from His message that morning. I had spent most of the day pondering over how my current trials and sufferings were producing perseverance, totally ignoring what the other 75% of the sermon had been about. I was practically relishing in the "woe is me" circumstances that I'd been experiencing lately, almost taking pride in how it was okay for me to be feeling cranky on the inside, as long as I was suffering for God. Just leave me in my room to suffer, please. I probably should have given the rest of the message a little more thought. In the latter part of Philippians 3, John writes about followers of Christ being citizens of heaven, and he challenges them to act like it. Yes, as a follower of Christ I was going to suffer my own daily battles, but that does not give me the excuse to pout and ignore the higher callings that are instilled in us when we learn the love of our Savior. If I did anything besides doing every single one of those dishes, how would that be showing my citizenship to heaven and being a good witness to my roommate? As small a thing as it may seem, and as hard as it is to choke down the pride and humiliation, I'm glad that God is teaching me that there are much more important things to worry about regarding my relationships with those around me. Loving, serving, and humility are more important than who has to clean out the sink.