There is something quite satisfying about recognizing and embracing your place in _______(fill in the blank - the world, your family, your job, the body of Messiah). The older I get - no age comments, please - the more obvious it becomes to me what I am.

I am a maintainer.

I love maintaining. I personally find visioncasting too fuzzy and fruitless, while implementing it downright difficult and requires a good amount of conflict. But maintaining, there's something I can get behind.

As the newest (and happily) employed member of the Latte Books team, it seemed appropriate to mention that my new job is all about maintaining. I maintain the ebb and flow of books that provide Marky - and now me - with income. I sit down at my makeshift desk in the utility closet and send books to people, a task that simultaneously pleases both me and the customer. Maintaining gives me that warm fuzzy feeling like a cup of hot tea or a bag of black licorice.

To take it a step further, however, I think maintaining is a part of my spiritual DNA. Arthur Burk talks about the increased ability to bless the land that is inherent with the redemptive gift of servant. Blessings are meant to be given over and over in order to sustain the state of blessing. It is spiritual maintenance.

And instead of finding this repitition boring or mundane, I feel my spirit come alive with excitement. Everything I've ever learned or heard around me convinces me that repitition and maintenance should and must be boring tasks. But I believe I am learning to disregard those voices.