Japanese fans cleaned the World Cup stadium and went viral, until people back home said: do it at home too. Paul moves the real test to where no one claps.
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men.
Colossians 3:23
After Japan tied the Netherlands at the World Cup, the cameras caught something that has become a tradition: Japanese fans staying behind to comb the stands with trash bags, leaving the stadium cleaner than they found it. The internet did what it always does with this and called them an inspiration. But this time, back in Japan, a different reaction went viral. Someone set a photo of a man tidying the stadium beside a photo of the same kind of man at home, on the couch with his phone while his wife washes the dishes. The caption, more or less: how about doing it at home too.
It is a sharp little point, and it lands well beyond Japan, and well beyond men. There is a line in one of Paul's letters, written to ordinary workers doing thankless jobs no one would ever applaud. Whatever you do, he tells them, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord and not for human masters. The whole weight is on those last words. Not for the people watching. The work that counts is the work done as if God were the only one in the room.
That is the gap the photo exposes. It is easy to be good where there is a crowd and a camera, where tidiness goes viral and strangers call you an inspiration. The harder thing is the sink at eleven at night, the chore no one will ever thank you for, the kindness with no audience. Public goodness comes with a built-in reward. The private kind has only the doing of it.
Anyone can leave a clean stadium. The question the dishes ask is quieter: who are you when the cameras are off, and the only one keeping score is God.