The Minister Who Washed Dishes for Forty Years

In 1963, British War Secretary John Profumo stood before Parliament and lied. His affair with Christine Keeler had become a national scandal, and when the truth surfaced, his career collapsed overnight. He resigned in disgrace, his name synonymous with shame across Britain.

But what Profumo did next stunned everyone. He walked into Toynbee Hall, a charity in London's East End, and asked how he could help. They handed him a mop. He took it. For the next forty years — without a single press interview, without a word of self-defense — Profumo scrubbed floors, washed dishes, visited the elderly, and fundraised for the poorest neighborhoods in London. He arrived early. He stayed late. He never stopped.

By the time he died in 2006, Margaret Thatcher had personally welcomed him back into public life. He received a CBE from the Queen. But those who knew him said the honors meant little to him. The work itself had become his life.

In Luke 13, Jesus tells of a fig tree that had produced nothing for three years. The gardener pleads: "Give it one more year. Let me dig around it and fertilize it." It is a story about the scandalous patience of God — and the fruit that genuine repentance can still bear. Profumo's barren tree was given another season. And the fruit it bore fed a city.