Two Different Worlds

Today after our church potluck, we started to clean up the room, as per usual. I started to stack chairs when I realized I was getting some strange looks from the older men who were also stacking. Looking around, I was the only woman doing this relatively physical chore, while the other woman were in the kitchen cleaning the dishes. I remarked to my pastor that it felt odd to get the feeling that I wasn't supposed to be doing the physical work, when I do so much worse at work. He chuckled and agreed, but basically shrugged it off, as it is an older church and it is not an uncommon attitude. Sometimes it can be difficult to mesh the two worlds I seem to live in. I work in a very challenging field, doing challenging work in challenging circumstances. Then when I go to church, I am a sweet church-going woman who is expected to let the men lift the chairs while I do the dishes. It's hard to do that sometimes, as I know that in an emergency, not only would I manage the entire situation, I could also lift any one of those guys who was looking at me strangely. I may eventually be able to combine both, the kick-ass paramedic and the sweet church woman who bakes the potluck favourites, but I don't seem to be able to right now. They just seem like polar opposites, and the people on each side certainly don't understand what the other side is like.