Before moving on to talk about Romania, I wanted to share with you guys what my teammate, Katie, and I learned during our time serving at a local thrift shop in Pristina. Our thoughts below on how we found God’s grace among the mess of a retail store…
In Kosovo this past month, Katie and I were serving the local church in Pristina by working in one of their four thrift stores. It was the first time for both of us working in the retail industry. We quickly realized that we were in a microcosm of our own relationships with God.
Every morning, we would open the doors to the public with shelves and racks full of perfectly organized and folded clothes. Things would be stacked straight, nicer items would be out on display; everything had a place and everything was in its place.
Day in and day out, the same people would flood the store. They would violently sift through through the clothing, hunting for something they haven’t found yet that might be the missing piece of their wardrobe.
Sometimes they would leave entire sections of clothing or blankets 100% unfolded and in shambles.
The moment we took our eyes off the store, mayhem commenced sending clothes flying in places they shouldn’t be.
It was up to Katie, our Kosovar coworkers and myself to gracefully be there helping them refold and sort through everything that customers left destroyed. This would recur many times day in and day out.
Now if people didn’t come in and destroy everything, we wouldn’t have to do anything to fix their messes, right?
What we didn’t realize, was how hard choosing to extend grace to people who didn’t respect us time after time would be.
BUT isn’t that just like God, always happily refolding and reorganizing our “messy clothes”. God is the epitome of grace. Grace is the unmerited, undeserved and unearned kindness and favor of God.
Through deep sighs and prayers, the gift of grace hit us as hard as a flood.
In life we are mayhem, making mistakes and letting people down every single day. We leave huge messes in our wake, some bigger than we can even clean up on our own.
BUT every time we mess things up, He is our retail worker, always there re-folding and helping us make things right. He shows us kindness and favor even though we don’t deserve and haven’t earned it.
So next time you’re in a retail store thank the workers, put your clothes back and remember to gift of grace God gives us in the midst of the chaotic world we live in.
