Track 1: I married a janitor. →
I know how to remove water rings from toilets. I’ve swept more floors in the last couple of years than I have my whole life. And I’ve held countless ladders while my husband climbed up to change lightbulbs I thought were impossible to reach. I’ve listened to horror stories of what crazy kids leave behind for "the janitor."
If you ask my groom what he does for a living, he’ll respond, “I’m a janitor.” It used to bug me. Actually, when he first told me his profession, I seriously thought he was joking. That’s who I was.
After I graduated from college, I thought I deserved a trip, so I made it happen and flew solo to Germany. While there, I was fortunate enough to go to France, Switzerland and Austria. It was an experience of a lifetime to say the least. Something I’ll never forget about the culture I soaked in while staying with German families is that people don’t kick-off conversations with the question, “So what do you do?” I loved that!
I later read in a European travel book that it’s almost considered rude to start an introduction that way – as though the person getting to know you assumes your job is what defines you.
I was very much a person who started out conversations with that question. I also used to be a person whose job defined who I was. I was determined that whatever I did for a living…it was going to be my passion.
Everything changed when I fell in love for real. I had "been in love" so many times. As one of my nieces puts it, I chewed up boyfriends and spit them out like bubble gum.
When it was the real deal and I KNEW that Paul would be the one I would spend forever with, I had no idea how much my world would turn upside down. He was like no one I had ever dated.
He proposed an idea to me during our short wedding/elopement planning period: that I could have a break from working once we were married. It was our “honeymoon,” if you will. I almost fainted when I heard his offer! I had already updated my resume and sent it off all over northeast Nebraska. In my mind, I’d have a job before I left Springfield, Missouri, where I worked at a job I was so in love with for about 10 years. It was the best gift anyone could have given me: time.
But what happened in that eight-month hiatus, I can never do justice explaining. God got ahold of me. He was chasing after my heart for a long time. But it was then when He revealed himself to me, his enemy, who was living a life for myself, not for Him.
I underwent such a drastic transformation that I began to appreciate my husband’s answer, “I’m a janitor.” I noticed that when you start conversations out by letting people know you’re in ministry, new acquaintances aren’t sure what to do with that. I’ve watched people physically shut down in response. If Paul would answer that he leads worship services, that he’s in a church building seven days a week, or that he operates a small business, it wouldn’t be true to his humble self.
“He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what He has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord.”
He’s the humblest person you’ll ever meet. I don’t just say that because he’s my best friend. He doesn’t tell anyone when he’s sick, because it’s simply unnecessary for you to worry about him. He'll work 60+ days straight without complaining. He gifts me a present on his birthday! We pull over for EVERY car that’s broken down to ask if they need a jump – no matter what it might make us miss. He prays for his enemies.
He thanks God while he takes down and puts up insanely heavy tables. Thanks Him for work to keep his hands busy. He offers his work back to God as an act of worship. Every single day. He never talked about that with me, but rather he lived it out and God showed me his precious child’s way of living. It’s beautiful.
Could he “do something with his life?” Oh yes, God has given me a smart and talented husband! But what he’s doing with his life is serving the Lord. He provides for our family and gives it all back to God. Technically he’s got about six different jobs (which makes taxes super fun for me) and he loves them all.
Could I be married to a doctor who also saves lives and gives his work back to God? Absolutely. There are many Godly men who live this way. But what I picked up on about Paul early on is that he will not boast about his work. He will only boast about Christ Jesus who loved us so much that he gave Himself for us – so that we could be free!
And He still works miracles. (I know, because He raised me from death to life 20 months ago.)
I just want to honor Jesus the best I can and love my husband with everything inside of me. I can’t wait to tell our future children – whether we make them or adopt them – all about Jesus and what He’s done for us.
I’m going to say it: Praise the Lord for blue collars!
Someone has to do it.
And it might as well be someone who isn’t ashamed to empty the trashcans in bathroom stalls or clean baby vomit out of nursery carpet.
It might as well be someone who polishes the floor until it shines, because he’s doing it for Our Creator who will return one day soon.
Photo by Christian Gideon.