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November 24, 2006
no longer cold hard ball, but still toughened.
psalm 26 helped. you know, we usually think of evildoers as the people in CSI or Law and Order, especially the Special Victims Unit. But having the Psalmist name those sinners who surround me 'evildoers' reminded me of several things:
1. God knows my problem. He already knew I'd be full up to here [points to eyebrows] of this job and all the accoutrements of the retail life. Whew! And I know he already dealt with sin and sinful people and sinful subcultures: what do I think the Redeemer was doing (is doing), after all?
2. God recognizes that it is actually a problem. It is a sinful subculture, and all the marketing and crap is sinful! It is sinfulness, hypocrisy, an assembly of evildoers, wickedness, and they are sinners, bloodthirsty men, their hands are filled with evil devices and bribes!
3. God reminds me of specific solutions to my problem. He reminds me that though I am surrounded, I am still within his steadfast love. I may rest because he vindicates me. I am innocent and my place is where God ordains: in God's house, worshipping him.
4. After all, my foot stands on level ground.
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All this leads me to a more charitable view of the stupid lemming customers: they are stupid lemming customers, but they are so because they are trapped by sin and sinfulness. I've never rung up someone I know to be Redeemed who behaves in such a way as to shame their mother or the Name of their Redeemer. And I've had people come by my register who wear crosses on necklaces, and who wear the cross on their hearts: it's a discernible difference, and sometimes subtle. But a difference nonetheless.
But they are trapped by their culture, just as trapped as a heroin addict (an addiction I've never seen in a person's live) or an alcoholic (an addiction I have seen--it killed my uncle). Just as you feel sorry for the thousands of cattle in feedlots, milling around in that filthy manure-mud, because you know they are destined for the slaughterhouse, so compassion for these poor trapped lemmings has grown in me. They are just as surely lost, and they crave our prayers.
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But I'm still inured to their behavior--mostly. I don't grow as impatient or judgmental...I just don't let their silliness get to me as much. I don't let their passive aggression or their deception or theft or disrespect get under my skin. (Why? Because I recognize myself for who I am--redeemed--and I recognize them for who they are--in need of redemption while being simultaneously part of the assembly of evildoers.
Stories from Behind the Counter | By The Newest Worker | 05:46 PM
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