Today was one of those 'be kind (everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle)' type of days.
My immature, 19-year-old co-worker's ability to perform simple tasks (like pouring a cup of coffee) bears an inverse relationship to the amount of jabber he spews out of his mouth. Since multi-tasking isn't his strong-suit, I find myself on his case to get stuff done more often than I'd like. He's pretty ridiculous and thinks himself rather clever (don't get me wrong...he has his moments), but when I'm short with him it's really just because he needs someone to snap him back to the tasks at hand; plus, he can take it (he knows we're besties)!
In church this morning, as part of an aside to the broader message, the pastor mentioned the opportunity we have for silently praying for the different people we encounter during our days, e.g., the checkout girl at the grocery store or the person in front of us at the post office. What a unique opportunity I have for applying this practice, since I literally come in contact with hundreds of coffee-drinkers each day.
So, I started my shift with the intention of trying to pray a short blessing into the lives of my co-workers and all the different people I handed drinks to today.
Jesus tells us to love and pray for our enemies, and since it's hard to be frustrated or annoyed or angry with people you're praying for, I think that He was on to something there.
I found myself actually seeing the people I gave drinks to, instead of the blur of hands that customers sometimes become to me during the afternoon rush. I noticed things about customers that typically don't even register on my radar, and I let those things kind of guide and inspire how I prayed: if I noticed a wedding ring I might have prayed that God bless the customer's marriage; if I noticed a school sweatshirt on a college-aged person, I prayed a blessing over this amazing and formative period in said customer's life.
Just the other day, I had an encounter with one of the rudest customers I'd ever had the misfortune of serving an Ameri-misto to, and where several months ago, the way he spoke to me would have really affected and hurt me, this latest experience simply left me incensed. Back when I first started and mean customers used to really hurt my feelings, I explained my sensitive reaction to my supervisor as a positive thing since it meant that I cared. Somewhere along the way I guess I lost that, and I hadn't even realized that I did until my encounter with Jerky McJerkerson meant nothing to me. Since then, I'd actually been searching for a way to 'care' again, and I think that with this little experiment in praying for our patrons, I may have just found it!
But back to my multi-taskingly-challenged co-worker. A couple hours into our shift together, he mentioned that today was the one-year anniversary of his father's death.
Maybe it was the affect my experiment had on the way I was interacting with him today that made him feel like sharing this with me. It sounded like he needed to get some more stuff off his chest, so I asked him to tell me about his dad. He went on to talk about his pop like he was the man. They had an amazing relationship, he died unexpectedly from a heart attack, and his absence in their family has left a void in my co-worker's heart that hurt me to hear about.
Father, bless my friend.
My immature, 19-year-old co-worker's ability to perform simple tasks (like pouring a cup of coffee) bears an inverse relationship to the amount of jabber he spews out of his mouth. Since multi-tasking isn't his strong-suit, I find myself on his case to get stuff done more often than I'd like. He's pretty ridiculous and thinks himself rather clever (don't get me wrong...he has his moments), but when I'm short with him it's really just because he needs someone to snap him back to the tasks at hand; plus, he can take it (he knows we're besties)!
In church this morning, as part of an aside to the broader message, the pastor mentioned the opportunity we have for silently praying for the different people we encounter during our days, e.g., the checkout girl at the grocery store or the person in front of us at the post office. What a unique opportunity I have for applying this practice, since I literally come in contact with hundreds of coffee-drinkers each day.
So, I started my shift with the intention of trying to pray a short blessing into the lives of my co-workers and all the different people I handed drinks to today.
Jesus tells us to love and pray for our enemies, and since it's hard to be frustrated or annoyed or angry with people you're praying for, I think that He was on to something there.
I found myself actually seeing the people I gave drinks to, instead of the blur of hands that customers sometimes become to me during the afternoon rush. I noticed things about customers that typically don't even register on my radar, and I let those things kind of guide and inspire how I prayed: if I noticed a wedding ring I might have prayed that God bless the customer's marriage; if I noticed a school sweatshirt on a college-aged person, I prayed a blessing over this amazing and formative period in said customer's life.
Just the other day, I had an encounter with one of the rudest customers I'd ever had the misfortune of serving an Ameri-misto to, and where several months ago, the way he spoke to me would have really affected and hurt me, this latest experience simply left me incensed. Back when I first started and mean customers used to really hurt my feelings, I explained my sensitive reaction to my supervisor as a positive thing since it meant that I cared. Somewhere along the way I guess I lost that, and I hadn't even realized that I did until my encounter with Jerky McJerkerson meant nothing to me. Since then, I'd actually been searching for a way to 'care' again, and I think that with this little experiment in praying for our patrons, I may have just found it!
But back to my multi-taskingly-challenged co-worker. A couple hours into our shift together, he mentioned that today was the one-year anniversary of his father's death.
Maybe it was the affect my experiment had on the way I was interacting with him today that made him feel like sharing this with me. It sounded like he needed to get some more stuff off his chest, so I asked him to tell me about his dad. He went on to talk about his pop like he was the man. They had an amazing relationship, he died unexpectedly from a heart attack, and his absence in their family has left a void in my co-worker's heart that hurt me to hear about.
Father, bless my friend.
This is an absolutely beautiful post. So many of us could learn from this. I'm going to pass this on to others :)
ReplyDeleteThis is very meaningful work you're doing! This is making a difference to people! Whether it's through helping keep them caffeinated through their day, offering a smile to customers, or through your prayers that I KNOW God hears, you're doing it! Be encouraged, and hang in there :)