Learning From Paul (4)

When your living room is in a mess, do you take out the vacuum cleaner because you feel like doing this? The discipline of the 'housewife' has much to teach us if we are to learn the discipline of discipleship, which is called for by Paul's words: "your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit ... So glorify God in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). The discipline of discipleship highlights for us the "I have to do this" dimension of the Christian life. Let me tell you a story about a woman in her sixties, a slim woman about five feet tall. One evening, she sat in her living room, waiting for her husband to return from his work in the fields. Suddenly, she noticed, at the window, the face of a burly stranger. She controlled herself, laid aside her needlework, crossed the room and pushed the piano against the door. When her husband returned, he called in a neighbour and, together, they pushed the piano back into its place. To this day, every once in a while, the man will look up from his newspaper and ask, "Who helped you move that piano?" The point is that she had to move the piano. He didn't have to move it back.