The Dark Side of LSTC

This past week I decided to add something to my LSTC experience that I had not tried before: night cleaning crew.   I basically get to take out LSTC’s trash, clean chalkboards and whiteboards, vacuum, mop, sweep, wipe down tables, and keep an eye out for supplies that need to be replaced.  I get to do all of this stuff from 9pm-12am every Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  It’s not too much outside of the scope of the maintenance skills I developed at camp but it is an unexpected opportunity for me.  I originally scheduled to work night crew for two reasons: income and intentional time when I couldn’t stress myself out with homework.  I’ve received both benefits that I was hoping for, but I am getting something that I wasn’t expecting from the experience.

It’s one thing for me to go to class and worship at the sacred spaces at LSTC.  It’s another sort of spiritual experience for me to clean them.  I wipe tables where I and other colleagues have spent our day learning, praying, and pouring ourselves into our work and workspaces.  I wipe boards where teachers have imparted ideas and where theologies can continually be manifest in the following class day.  I mop and sweep the worship spaces at LSTC where tears are shed, praise is given, and where God is continually present in our gathering.  Yeah, my job is pretty cool.  J

In this job, so far, I have found that the dark side of LSTC holds many sacred opportunities as the lights which I am so accustomed to dim and a new way of understanding the world of LSTC is experienced.  Perhaps it’s in the darker places of our experience where we learn a new way of understanding our world and our theological perspectives.  It’s probably in the darker places where it’s not necessarily scary, but extremely formative and sacred.  It’s in the dark side of LSTC where I get to experience a totally different way of theological formation.  And where I get to see how much Starbucks our student population consumes on an average class day.

Until Next Thursday! (If I can remember, we all kind of switched up the days.)