Wednesday, June 5, 2013

A Clean Sweep

One of the great occupations in Botswana is sweeping.  UB has hundreds of employees keeping up the place, and a goodly portion of those workers are sweepers.  Almost every time I go across campus, to class, or on some errand, I see people, sometimes several, sweeping.  They not only sweep the sidewalks and gutters, they sweep the ground too.

Mostly they seem to focus on sweeping up leaves.  I say this because there is plenty of litter around, and if they were sweeping litter, as many sweepers as there are, I wouldn't have much to pick up.  I toss a lot of trash in trashcans here, and most of them have a small square-sided bucket and a dustpan inside for the sweepers to use.

I'm guessing that all this sweeping is a cultural thing.  I recall my father telling me that in the old days (Dad was born in 1913) anyone with grass growing in their yard was considered slovenly.  You had a yard broom and you swept your yard regularly enough to keep all vegetation eliminated.




As you can see above, there may be old burned logs, a hose lying shelter-skelter, cluttering trash, but by George, that dirt is getting swept!

This reminds me of............me.  I worry about the mundane, and over-look the important.  I sweep the dirt and ignore the more easily remedied but bigger issues.  I "strain at a gnat and swallow a camel" as Jesus once noted.

Is there hope for me?  No, not for me.  Perhaps if I paid more attention to the Holy Spirit I could make some progress.  But wait, I think I need to stop thinking about this and go brush my teeth.


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