Frustration

“He’s a good person though.”

May 19, 2010 by Robbie in Discipleship, Faithfulness, Frustration, Holy Spirit (Pneumatology), Kingdom of God | 5 Comments

Have you ever heard someone say, “I know he makes mistakes but deep down he is a good person”?  That statement frustrates me more than most because it seems the call to carry the cross is not a call to fit in a little Jesus when you need it. 

Nowhere in Scripture do I see a “balanced life with a little bit of God added in” as an ideal for us to emulate.  Yet when I look at our churches, this is exactly what I see: a lot of people who have added Jesus to their lives.  People who have, in a sense, asked Him to join them on their life journey, to follow them wherever they feel they should go, rather than following Him as we are commanded.  Francis Chan, Forgotten God, pp. 121-122. 

I can’t help but identify with Chan’s comments in that many people pack the pew and it makes our numbers look great (it even gives us ministers a salary) but it makes our spirit look and feel awful.  I am tired of being the good person, the nice person, the polite person, the quiet person, the ______ club person, the good citizen, the peaceful neighbor, the ‘at-a-boy person.  Basically I am tired of trying to lead the Spirit instead of being led by the Spirit.  We are not (necessarily) called to be anything else but Christians and that is the bottom line.  We do not need good people…we need Christians!  

If all you want is a little Jesus to “spiritualize” your life, a little extra God to keep you out of hell. you are missing out on the fullness of life you were created for.  Not only this, you don’t need the Holy Spirit.  You don’t need the Holy Spirit if you are merely seeking to live a semi-moral life and attend church regularly.  You can find people of all sorts in many religions doing quite nicely without Him.  Chan, p. 122.   

Update on Grocery Shopping Rant

April 7, 2010 by Robbie in Frustration, Funny, Life's Lessons, Rants...., Updates | 6 Comments

So a week ago I posted a rant about grocery stores (read it here) and thought I was good and got it all off my chest.  And then this morning this is what I saw…

 

If you read my post you will get a kick out of this but if you have not then read it again and then look at the picture.  Two things you need to know: 1) We are in the 20 items-or-less check out lane and 2) cokes were on sale today…he got most of them himself.  The person in front of me (holding the bananas) was irritated as well…little did he know I posted something a week ago.  I recognized the person who purchased these drinks and he owns a gas station in Robertson County and this is how he purchases his two litres.  I think it is cheaper to purchase it directly from Coca-Cola but oh well.  Wal-MArt made their profit…so did Coca-Cola…and I had to wait in line for this.  IRONY!!!

Murphy’s Law and the Grocery Store

March 31, 2010 by Robbie in Frustration, Funny, Rants.... | 3 Comments

It has been a while since I have ranted but I could not resist after my experiences yesterday at the grocery store and then this morning.  I hope you understand this is all in good fun and I really do have good patience but this is a blog which is opinionated so it is a good place for me to release some things.  No doubt you share in some of the experiences I list but perhaps you could share some more.  Here they are in no particular order:

First with shoppers…

  • The pull-out-around-the-corner-without-looking shopper.  No doubt you are in a hurry to get your most important items but I don’t pull out of a driveway without looking so why should you pull out of an aisle and go full steam with your cart full of green beans? 
  • The on-sale-item-hoarder shopper.  You know who you are!!!  One time I went to get some 2-Liter cokes that were on sale for fifty cents and I saw people who had filled their shopping carts (2 of them actually) with the 2-liters leaving the rest of the shoppers with nothing.  I understand you are getting a bargain but why not drop the selfish plan and let other people save as well?
  • The not-so-20-items-or-less shopper.  This is a pet-peeve of mine and it happened this morning.  The fast lane is designed for 20 items or less but sometimes people are too impatient to go to the regular check out so they look at their buggies and think “I am ok” and then go to the fast lane checkout….with 40 items.  Suck it up and go to the regular lanes.  Which brings me to the next one…
  • The incompetent-self-check-out shopper.  No doubt you have seen the self check-out lanes at the grocery stores.  They are designed to help shoppers with few items not have to go to a regular check-out lane.  However, I have learned it is not faster.  You have people who sit there and wonder how they do it and then ask for help to ring something up and then ask for help on how to pay.  Then there are the ridiculous people who will bring a whole cart full of groceries to the self check-out lane.  At the end of the day I think some people would rather talk to a computer than have human interaction.  They don’t trust people with their groceries and this gives them control!   
  • The check-writing shopper.  Welcome to the 21st century people!  They do have debit cards that actually take the money right out of your account.  These people slow the line up tremendously because they wait to start writing their check until all of the groceries are scanned when they could have been utilizing that time for pre-writing the date, memo, signing it and who to make it out to.  Get with it people. 
  • The guardian-of-the-check-out-belt shopper.  These are the people who park their cart in front of the belt so you can’t put items on the belt with their items.  Then, to frustrate you even more, they put their items up one at a time as if to scorn your impatience with further lackadaisical measures.  
  • The double-paper-bag shopper. I know they make good trash bags and you use them all over the house but it takes forever for the bag-person to bag your groceries just because you want your canned items not to rip. 
  • The too-lazy-to-return-an-item-or-shopping-cart shopper.  I see people all the time putting items they do not want on shelves where they did not get the items.  One time a person just left ground beef on a shelf which meant it was going to spoil which meant it would cost the store money which meant prices will eventually increase.  Why?  Because you are lazy.  Also, people take your cart back!  No it does not go in a space between parking spots, no it does not go in a mulch bed, no it does not go on a curb and no it does not go by a light pole!  That is why they have buggy corrals so you can put them back where they belong.  this also prevents me from hitting a shopping cart with my vehicle or a shopping cart (because of gravity) rolling down an aisle and smashing my vehicle. 

Now for rants on the stores and their employees…

  • Shopping cart issues.  I always pick the wrong one.  The wheel that makes that wretched bouncing noise or the cart that makes a right turn when you let it go…I always pick the wrong one.  I have kids and so often they will want to sit in the cart but these carts are nasty and I always pick the one that has gum on it or coke or spilled milk or cheese or pizza or whatever. 
  • The talk-about-your-life cashier.  I do like talking with people but sometimes you get that awkward conversation that really makes you feel uncomfortable (which actually turns out to be a good ministry moment).  One girl told me about all of her tatoos…one girl told me about her child who was sick all night and she was sick too…one elderly lady told me about how she could not stand her current manager…one girl did not even say a word to me.
  • Unsympathetic Employees.  I have four kids and so sometimes bad things happen in the grocery store.  For example, we spilled something on the floor one time and an employee from a certain place (not mentioning names as it is rude but it rhymes with Fall-Cart) looked at me, rolled her eyes and said, “I’ll get it!”  I apologized and she did not even acknowledge me.  Look, I understand that it is inconvenient for you to clean up after my child and I didn’t ask for you to do it but offered to do it myself.  Your day may have been ruined and I understand your job may not be the greatest but until you walk a mile in my shoes don’t roll your eyes at me! 
  • Lazy Employees.  I posted one time about an experience I had in South Carolina when employees sat around watching me at the customer service desk as I stood there for 10 minutes while they said nothing.  Frustrating.     

I hope you enjoyed these as they were in  good fun.  Maybe next time you will be patient when you see a cashier or a shopper and learn to be peaceful with all men.  I digress…

Picking up the Pieces (Part 3)

March 24, 2010 by Robbie in Encouragment..., Faithfulness, Frustration, God, Grief, Lament, Mourning, Old Testament Theology, Power of God, Providence, Ruth, Suffering | Leave a comment

His name is Ted Mackenzie and he is my hero.  He also happens to be my father and for many reasons  I am thankful for him but probably the greatest quality I admire in this man is his devotion to me and Donnie no matter what.  I was a problem child for most of the 22 years I lived with him.  Detentions, suspensions, F’s on my report card, blatant disobedience, and a host of other things.  However, he stuck with me even in the hard times.  I imagine the most difficult thing for my dad to do was to watch me fail time after time when he knew there was so much more potential in me.  I remember a particularly rough moment in my life and I started crying and ran away, dad chased me and I ran in the basement and tried to run away from him and he held me in his arms and started crying.  I cried some growing up and I am sure Dad did as well but that was one of the few times we cried together.   

Dad, for me, was much like Boaz was for Ruth (obviously in a different connotation but you understand).  Boaz was Ruth’s kinsman-redeemer (Hebrew goel). The kinsman-redeemer in Israelite culture was the closest relative who would redeem their kin in times of trouble so that the women could have a chance in a male-dominated society (this is too short of a synopsis so click here for more information).  In short, Boaz sought to redeem Ruth but the problem was there was a kinsman-redeemer who was nearer to Ruth in kinship than Boaz (3:11-12).  Ruth tells the news to Naomi and this is her reaction:

“Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens.  For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”  (3:18)

The New Living Translation renders the word “wait” as, ”Be patient” but the Hebrew word for “wait” is yashav and literally means to “sit or to dwell.”  In the most literal sense Naomi is telling Ruth to sit there while Boaz (and God!) tries to consult the nearest kinsman-redeemer.  This may seem like a moot point to you but for Ruth this is her whole world.  This is her one chance and now she has to wait.  

Sound familiar?  Some of us have gone through some of the worst pain we have ever had to face.  We did not ask for it but it came nonetheless.  People keep telling us, “Everything is going to be all right,” yet we see none of that!  All we see is pain…

anguish…

an empty side of the bed…

an empty desk in a classroom… 

the sound of silence where laughter and joy once roamed. 

“Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens.”    That’s tough.

Picking up the Pieces (Part 2)

March 23, 2010 by Robbie in Encouragment..., Faithfulness, Frustration, Grief, Mourning, Old Testament Theology, Power of God, Providence, Ruth, the Father | Leave a comment

I remember the phone call very well that I received when I was a junior in high-school.  It was one of my best friends from Marietta, Georgia named Ryan on the line (at the time I was living in Chattanooga, TN).  This was great since we hadn’t talked in months and so I looked forward to the conversation but  I could tell something was wrong.  My best friend when I lived in Marietta was my next-door neighbor Johnny Struck.  We did everything together and that included good things but often bad things.  When I moved to Chattanooga we remained close but drifted apart somewhat and so we lost touch.  Ryan told me on the phone that day, “Robbie, I don’t know if you have heard but Johnny is dead.”  I don’t remember anything else Ryan said to me but I do remember being shocked at the time.  I told my parents and I remember my dad looking at me asking if I was ok.  I said I was but I wasn’t.  I never was told about the funeral and to this day I have not grieved properly for Johnny.  The weeks and months that followed Johnny’s death (without getting into details) were nothing short than providential. 

Ruth and Naomi at this point cannot see the big picture.  It makes no sense what has happened to them and being women they have now way of providing for themselves and so they are at the mercy of God’s will.  A woman today could more than likely get a job and provide some reasonable amount of income for her family but back then it did not happen that way.  Women were secondary to men and who you were was about who you were married to and what you owned.  Naomi and Ruth had little to nothing.  But…the barley harvest was beginning (1:22).  We pick up the story in chapter two where Ruth and Naomi simply need grain either to sell to get money or for food on their table.  Ruth offers to go pluck some grain in a field where someone would let her do so.  Naomi lets her and we come across a particular verse:

So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters.  AS IT TURNS OUT, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimilech.  (2:3)

“As it turns out” is not simple mishap or happenstance but it is descriptive language to describe that this is something God is doing.  God seems to be almost guiding her paths for Elimilech was Naomi’s husband and thus Naomi and Ruth would be from that particular clan.  As it turns out ;) , Ruth meets Boaz and she is allowed to pluck grain as she wills and furthermore Boaz provides protection for her while she gleans in the fields.  When she returns to Naomi with all of the grain Naomi  is amazed when she finds out Ruth makes contact with Boaz.  To the point she says this:

“The Lord bless him!”  Naomi said to her daughter-in-law.  “He has not stopped showing kindness to the living and the dead.”  She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman redeemers.”  (2:20)

We will not go into the specifics yet of what she is talking about but as we close this post I want you to pay attention to one thing.  Naomi has gone from proclaiming the Lord’s hand as the source of her troubles (1:14, 20-21) to now proclaiming the Lord as the source of her blessing.  Contradiction?  No way…she is holding to the ancient truths that God is in control of all things and that what is happening now in their lives has no other source than God’s steadfast love!  His providence is at work…this has been a long struggle for Naomi and Ruth and we must see that this did not happen overnight…but God is still at work. 

He will redeem them…He will redeem us!  We shall see this tomorrow in part 3.

Picking up the Pieces (Part 1)

March 22, 2010 by Robbie in Frustration, God, Mourning, Old Testament Theology, Power of God, Ruth, Suffering | Leave a comment

I was reading in the obituaries where a 9-year-old girl who was a member at the White Bluff church of Christ recently passed away after a long battle with cancer.  This came after hearing the news that Mickey Bell, a preacher for the churches of Christ with three boys (2 of whom I knew personally) lost his courageous battle with cancer.  Then yesterday one of my students was particularly bothered by something so I asked what was going on and they told me that they learned that just yesterday (Saturday) one of their friends was killed in a motorcycle accident.  My heart aches for the families and friends who are left picking up the pieces of their broken lives.  Sometimes grief is easier when it is anticipated but when something comes upon us so sudden and so quick we are left with questions, doubts and pain.  Death comes upon us all but it is hard to see death come to those who are (from our perspective) so young.  So what are we to do with the pain, the questions, the confusion and all the pieces scattered out like bits of broken glass? 

I read the book of Ruth this morning and it was such a positive read since I just concluded the book of Judges.  Ruth starts out with tragedy though if you remember the story.  A woman by the name of Naomi loses her husband and 10 years later loses her two sons.  She is left with her Moabite daughters-in-law and nothing else.  Her pain is immense and the anguish must be too much.  She appeals to her daughters to “pick up the pieces” and quit waiting around for something to come up (Ruth 1:11-13).  Naomi’s words ring with emotion describe her emotional state: 

“It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has gone out against me” (1:13).   

Now as a minister or a counselor we would want to discourage someone from saying that but what is clear by the narrator of this story is that they neither say this is false or true.  They leave it uup to the reader to decide and that is tough.  Did God do this?  We are simply not told.  Orpah returns to her land and her gods and Ruth refuses to leave Naomi.  They travel back together to Bethlehem and all the towns people gather to see this woman who has gone through so much.  I imagine it is like when you pass a wreck on the interstate and you don’t want to look but you do it anyways because it is so horrible.  If you lost your husband and two sons…it is horrible.  Note what Naomi says again:

“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them.  “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.  I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.  Why call me Naomi?  The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”  (1:20-21)

Again, we are left with no answer to the validity of Naomi’s comment…just our own set of questions and perhaps our own set of answers.  The picture Naomi paints is hardly one worth looking at.  She goes from having everything to losing it all and according to her it is the Lord’s fault.  Her, Ruth and Orpah (wherever she goes) is simply left to pick up the pieces and find meaning in their broken lives.  Things do not make sense.  But something happens that gives us a clue that God begins to work in their brokenness:

So Naomi returned…accompanied by Ruth…arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.  (1:22). 

I understand that this is setting up what will happen in the next chapter but I also believe this is a subtle hint that for Naomi and Ruth, this is the beginning of God doing something amazing in their life.  For us (especially for the families and my student) the pain is real right now and no words will comfort…but God is at work in the midst of even the most painful of situations. 

Part 2 is tomorrow.

Why I am considering cancelling my Facebook Account

March 7, 2010 by Robbie in Discipleship, Faithfulness, Family, Fasting, Frustration, Technology | 4 Comments

In 2005 a study indicated that 85% of all college students had a Facebook account (Source).   That study is now 5 years old so I would estimate that over 90% of college students use Facebook.  People in our congregation use Facebook as I see comments left and right about this event in their life and that event in their life.  Our teenagers talk now more on the internet and cell phone than they do face-to-face.  I often am asked, “Did you hear about so-and-so?”  To which I respond, “No I didn’t.”  Then the conversation usually begins with, “Well I heard on Facebook….”  Facebook has become part of our lives in a way in which everyday conversation hedges on Facebook.  “Did you hear that….” or, “You know what I saw yesterday on Facebook?”  It is all a mess if you ask me!  Facebook, in my opinion, has become an issue for three important reasons.  First, I believe Facebook has created a false way in which humans interact with each other.  Teenagers text, instant message (IM) and chat and there is no interpersonal communication.  I hear of people quitting jobs via Facebook, getting together and breaking up via Facebook and the ever reliable announcement of an engagement, a pregnancy or the fact you got a C+ instead of a C- on a Chemistry final!  Secondly, Facebook induces what I call cyber gossip.  you may have heard this as “Facebook stalking.”  This is what gets on my last nerve is when people look at a person’s profile and sees information then checks the other person’s profile to confirm it then sends a comment (FOR EVERYONE TO SEE) telling them about the juicy news.  Admit it…deep down inside you spend hours looking at photos, status updates and comments because you like to know juicy information.  Someone once came up to me and said, “Hey, I am worried about ___________ because I saw him in a picture with a beer in his hand!”  A) This person should not have put the picture for everyone to see and B) Did you call this person to let THEM know of your concern and C) why are you meddling in people’s business anyways (I don’t care if it is public information).  Finally, Facebook has become nothing more, at least to me, than idolatry.  I hear of some of my teenagers spending hours a day looking at Facebook.  HOURS!!!  With technology you can receive updates via text or send updates via text.  If you have an internet plan on your phone you can check people’s profiles (i.e. stalk people) all day long.  The opportunities are endless.  Anything that takes your time away that much from what is important is idolatry. 

No doubt you are coming up with counter-arguments in your mind about the validity of Facebook and all of the good things that come from it.  Churches have groups, people pray for one another, people get birthday wishes (all be it still impersonal), long-lost friends are reconnected, and so forth. 

I just can’t see myself succumbing to the addiction and calling myself a disciple.  No doubt I will be the last one to find out that so-and-so are no longer together.  I will probably be the last to figure out that a teenager is seriously depressed because the put “seriously depressed” on their status.  I guess I won’t get to join all of those cool groups and ever-important causes.  Perhaps I will just have to spend more time with my family, with my Bible and with my wife in prayer and serving the community.  Wait a minute…isn’t that what I supposed to do anyways?  Maybe this won’t be so bad after all…we will see.

Just Another Day

January 4, 2010 by Robbie in Frustration, Life's Lessons, Ministry Mondays | Leave a comment

Exhausted businessman asleep at his deskI wrote in my bulletin article that it has been one of these days and I thought that it might get better but it in fact got worse.  I consider myself to be a task-oriented type-of-guy and my major task for the day was simple: “Write the lesson for this week’s curriculum by the end of the day.”  I had 7 hours to do it so I thought I had plenty of time.  Then the phone rang: a person who just got out of jail needed me to come pick him up to give him, his wife and his newborn baby some food.  I took them to Shoney’s and then went back to the office. 

I had 6 hours…no problem…phone rang: the same person wanted me to come pick his family up from Shoney’s and take them to the Dollar Store.  No problem.  Took them to the Dollar Store and then back to where they were staying and got back to the office. 

I had 5 hours…no problem…text message: one of my former youth group students wanted to drop by the office for a few minutes which was a good thing because I wanted to catch-up anyways and needed a break.  The student left…

I had 4 hours left…no problem…phone rang.  The same person I helped needs some dinner because they were not going to get paid in time and is going to meet me at my office as he walked from where he was staying to my office.  Before I can take him back a gentleman walks in the door who was from, of all places, Haiti and was trying to get back to Miami, FL and needed some gas.  I talked with him about his story and his family and gave him some gas (or a voucher) and then took the gentleman back who I had helped earlier. 

Got back to the office…1 hour and 30 minutes left.  Finally, I am at my computer and I can at least make a dent in the curriculum…my keyboard quit working.  At this point I am tempted to chalk it up and say, “What a waste!”  However, I look at Jesus and his retreats to lonely places and how in those interrupted times great things were accomplished.  Today was a good day.  Just not what I expected.  Thank you God.

Texting Rules

December 14, 2009 by Robbie in Frustration, Ministry, Ministry Mondays, Rants...., Youth Ministry | Leave a comment

Teens Hanging Out and Text Messaging

By now you know the explosion of the phenomenon known as “texting”.  Consider some of these statistics.

  • 72.2% of wireless users have paid for SMS packages.  This equates to 203 million Americans.
  • 57% of wireless users 13+ are considered regular text message users.
  • There has been a 107% increase in text message use in the USA in the past year.
  • 2.5 billion text messages are sent each day in the USA.
  • More text messages are sent per phone than phone calls.  The average text messages used per month is 357 compared to 204 cell phone calls.
  • 15 million Americans used video on their cell phones in quarter two, 2008.
  • 138 million Americans have sent a text message in the past three months.

Shocking?  I don’t think so.  There is another article I came across (click here to read it) that claimed texting is the new drunk-driving because it causes so many people get into an accident while texting.  Odds are, you either text, have a teenager that texts, or have some sort of influence on someone who texts.  One person in my youth group told me that in one month he had sent over 20,000 text messages!!!  We had a Christmas party with the youth group this past Friday at my house and while we were playing dirty Santa 3 or 4 of them were sitting there with their phones open texting one or two of their friends!  I thought to myself, “My how the times have changed for if I were to do that when I was a teenager mom and dad would honestly have killed me” (I am struggling to see if I am exaggerating or not).  I have been in conversations with teenagers and mid-conversation I hear the vibrations of the their phone and almost immediately they grab their phone and check the text message.  I am a youth minister and so on occasion (to test them) I have sent text messages to students and sure enough, like clock-work, in the middle of a sermon I see the shift of the body to one butt-cheek so they can (in stealth-mode apparently) check to see who just “texted” (is that even a verb?) them.  When they figure out it is the youth minister they call me a hypocrite because I just texted them.  I guess God is a hypocrite to allow Satan to test Job right? 

I was in a graduate class this semester and one of my professors stopped, mid-lecture, to look at a text message and then moved on.  Classmates text people (I have done it myself) while their professor is lecturing (don’t get me started on all of the students who surf the internet on their computers which are supposedly used to take notes).  I was walking today from Lipscomb’s student center to the Library and out of the 8 people I saw, 6 of them were texting!  My wife and I and another couple went to a movie a couple of weeks ago and during the movie we saw a number of people flip their phones up and text.  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!  This brings me to the point…I would like to offer some texting rules since we cannot avoid the concept of texting then we should offer some guidelines. 

  • Rule #1 – Never, never, never text when you are in a vehicle.  I have done this and nearly killed myself.  It is hard to pay attention when talking and looking at the road but texting and not looking at the road?  Come on…be realistic. 
  • Rule #2 – Never, never, never text while having a conversation with someone.  It is rude!  What if I were talking to you in a conversation and then all of the sudden started talking to someone else in the room while you were still talking to me?  It would be rude right?  But you are doing the same thing on a phone!!!  EVER LEARN ABOUT NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION?  What messages are you sending someone when you text while they are talking to you?  “I don’t think you are that important because this text message is more important to grab my attention!” 
  • Rule #3 – Never, never, never text during class or worship!  See rule #2!  What are you saying to God?  Enough said!
  • Rule #4 – Never, never, never text on a date!  I was eating dinner one time and looked at a teenage couple sitting at a table in front of me.  They were not talking to each other but both were texting someone else.  Want to find a quick way to end a relationship?  Start texting someone else while they are pouring their heart out to you. 
  • Rule #5 – Ask yourself, “Why am I texting?”  Some people text only because they cannot stand to be quiet, alone and separated from communication.  “I have to talk to someone!”  When we went to Mexico and one of our teenagers (who is a text addict) could not text in Mexico it killed him.  As soon as we crossed the border (he had his phone out waiting) he started texting!  So why do you text? 
  • Rule #6 – It is never that important to answer a text!  NEVER!  If someone is dying then they will call you.  If someone is in imminent danger they will call you.  But a text is never that important.  Never, ever, ever! 

So there you have it…my rules for texting.  Next time you text while I am talking to you I will take your phone and throw it and say, “Now can I talk to you?”  People…have some decency!

Vacation – Day 4

November 24, 2009 by Robbie in Frustration, Life's Lessons, Rants...., Vacation | 1 Comment

So I need to tell you an experience I had at the BI-LO shopping mart on Saturday.  I mentioned to you yesterday that we had driven all day on Saturday but what I failed to tell you is the story of me and a security guard almost going at it.  Seriously.  So dad and I went to BI-LO to get the necessities that night to hold us over until we could do a full shopping on Sunday.  We got the necessities and I thought it would be a good idea to get a shopping card to save a few bucks at the check-out.  So I went to the customer service counter to get a shopping card and there was nobody there.  No big deal.  So I waited…and waited…and waited.  The lady working the self-checkout lanes paged the manager but she was slow getting there and meanwhile a security guard was there flirting with that same lady at the self-checkout lanes.  I was patient.  Finally an assistant manager came and by then others were waiting in line (I was 2nd in line) so she helped a person with lottery tickets.  That took a while to cash them out and then turn around and immediately buy more lottery tickets.  My disdain was growing.  Then the lady behind that person cut in front of me and proceeded to do the very same procedure of cashing in lottery tickets to only buy quadruple more with the winnings she received.  My hatred was boiling.  Finally it was my turn but then she proceeded to answer a phone call.  My time at the “customer service” counter (customer and service both used lightly) had turned into 20 minutes of frustration but I finally had her attention.  “Could I help you sir?”  I stated, “I would like to fill out an application for a BI-LO shopping card.”  She looked at me as if I had missed something obvious and answered, “Sir, to fill one of those out you have to go to the table in front of the entry doors.”  So I went over there as if I was the dumbest person on earth and had failed to see the obvious signs (which were not there) for the BI-LO shopping card.  I waited at this table that was by the lounge where some employees were on break.  I waited 2 more minutes when I noticed a touch screen on the table.  Since nobody was there and the employees who were on break looked at me like I was an idiot I decided to touch the touch-screen to get the ball rolling.  By then the security guard (I use those terms lightly as well) noticed, between his breaks of flirting with the self-checkout associate, I was doing this and he came over yield his aura of power and control and said, ”Sir, are you an employee?”  Ok…I get it.  That set me off.  I knew what he was trying to do.  Clearly he was trying to get me to understand that this table was for employees only and I was clearly breaking company procedure by touching the screen.  But I did not like the way he said the question because it implied that I was an idiot and I did not know what I was doing.  I answered to him, “No sir I am not an employee but I do not see a sign here that says I have to be one to touch this screen.”  I could tell this did not sit well with him because he had his hand on his belt where ready to pull his imaginary gun out at me if I were to say one more sarcastic remark.  He said, “If you need a card please go to the customer service desk and they will be glad to assist you.”  I thought he would say that.  “Sir, I just came from that very same customer service desk where I waited 20 minutes only to have her tell me to come over here where nobody is willing to help me.”   He was clearly ready to engage me at this time.  “Then you will have to wait here for a few more minutes until someone comes and helps you.”  I looked at him with a world of exhaustion, frustration and anger, “I am tired of waiting.  I am done with you people.  Just forget about it!”  Dad was already checking out and I decided to join him.  The self-checkout lady then came over here and said that we could go ahead and get the discount that it would not take long to fill the application out for the card.  I looked at her and the security guard and told them directly that I refuse the discount.   If I could not get there help in the 20 minutes prior I did not want there help now when they knew I was upset.  I saw this as a moment they were saving face.  

Lessons learned a few days later. 

  1. Anger leads to resentment and that never heals the issue.  I was wrong for that. 
  2. We should not wait until people are mad to address their needs. 
  3. How many people in our churches go unnoticed because we are too busy focusing on our little cliques? 
  4. During periods of exhaustion and frustration we need to simply walk away and rest. 
  5. I have noticed that it is not huge issues that bother the Church rather it is the little things. 
  6. Flexing our muscles and wielding power does not accomplish anything but fear and scare tactics. 

Good lessons on a vacation.  Good confession…I have let it go…it is off my chest and I will not speak of it anymore.

By the way…we wnet back the next day and got our $11.34 back!!!  Who got the last laugh?  HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  Have a good day!

← Older posts
Newer posts →