Alright….
So, I am reading "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan. I have actually been reading it for several months now, because I will begin reading it and then set it down and completely forget about it until a couple of months go by and then I have to start all over again, because I have forgotten what I had already read. Anyway, I got to a section in chapter 5 where it says…..
"According to God, we are here to love. Not much else really matters. So God assesses our lives based on how we love. What does God mean by love…."
"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…..faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13
Chan then goes on to say to take the word Love in that passage and insert your name in it's place….."Emmaly is patient and kind…"
I didn't get any further than that before I felt like throwing up. Let me share a little story with you guys that just happened this morning….
First of all, I am generally a happy person and it takes a lot to upset me….like really upset me. I enjoy people and I enjoy my job (I work in a gym) because I am surrounded by people. However, today I was asked to sign this lady up for a gym membership, which is a normal task for my job. I walk to the computer where she is standing and ask her which membership she would like to sign up for. She tells me the package that she wants. I begin to sign her up, while noticing that she was going to be one of "those" people. "Those" people = difficult, annoyed, angry, know-it-all…etc (judgemental much?)
So, she proceeds to question me about the membership, which is totally normal. I answer her questions to the best of my knowledge, knowing that my answers are not making her happy because I am beginning to sense her attitude change. She begins to sign the agreement for the membership and when it gets to the one about the the annual fee for her particular package, she blows up! She wants to know why she has to pay an annual fee on a certain day when her year isn't up until such and such day…etc. etc. She then proceeds to tell me that it's such a dumb policy (mind you, she is still signing the agreement as she is ranting about how dumb it all is), and then she continues to bash the gym.
I am not a verbal person when it comes to conflict…at all. I tend to ignore their insults and just let it go, but not with this lady. By the time I finished signing her up, I was completely and utterly…annoyed. I was annoyed with her attitude and with how she was talking about the company and talking to me. The bad thing….she could see it all over my face and it only fed into her attitude. She went and sat down as I signed up another person but I noticed that she was staring at me and I stared….well, as she put it…I glared at her.
Once I finished signing up the other person, the lady came back up to the front desk and told me that because I was of no help to her and offered her 0 information, that she didn't know what to do next. She asked me where she needed to scan her card. I told her where. She asked me where she could get a towel from and I gave her one. She then asked me what's up with the attitude and that I shouldn't be employed there because I was a horrible representation of the work place.
I.WANTED.TO.SMACK.HER.- Not very "Godly" of me, eh? I was so flustered and irritated beyond words at this point that all I could do was offer her a very smart-ellicky "I'm sorry". Ugh.
I told my boss that she may be receiving a complaint about me and she asked me why, so I told her the story. She found it hard to believe that I would act in such a manner, which is nice to know because like I said I am very professional when it comes to my job, but I told her that this lady would be telling the truth and that I probably wasn't very nice to her but that she wasn't very nice to me either…..but, in all honesty, should that matter?
Should it matter that she was rude to me? Should it matter that she insulted the company or me? Does that make it ok for me to respond in the same manner?
Is that what Jesus would do? Is that how He would've acted?
Never.
He would've handled it with such grace and mercy. He would've shown her Love.
Now, I know I am not Jesus. I am only human, but I could've handled that situation with a little more "Kindness" and "Patience".
So when I read that section in Chan's book….it felt like a slap in the face. A punch in the stomach. Follower's of Jesus Christ are not here to cause pain, anger, or hatred. We are here to love like He did and does. We are here to live a life through Jesus Christ by serving people even when they are not being so nice back. We are called to give everything we got to the lost, the biggest being Love.
I didn't do that today, but I learned from it and my goal for the next time I see her….
An apology and a thank you.
An apology for my attitude and a thank you for calling me out on it.
Mission: to live out 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13
Thank you all for loving me and my imperfections. Continue to bless and be blessed. We serve an awesome God.
Emms
