CLEVELAND, Ohio – It was not my finest moment.
That’s what I was thinking after this recent encounter with a young lady working in a health-food place where you can order meals to go.
I tried to hand her a piece of paper, a list of what my wife wanted to eat.
“I can’t take that,” she said, horrified. “IT’S CONTAMINATED!”
I looked at the paper in my hand as if it was about to bite off my fingers.
“It’s my wife’s order," I said. "Do you mind if I read it to you so you get this right?”
She shrugged.
“Look,” I said. “I didn’t walk here just to give you a hard time.”
My tone was in the verbal badlands between sarcastic and condescending.
She ignored me and listened as I read the order.
She struggled and I watched her struggle getting the three items together. She walked down to the register and it took a while for her to ring it up.
She had no other customers. Everything seemed to take forever, although it was no more than 10 minutes.
I gave her the money and a token “thanks” as I left.
Driving home it hit me like a frying pan in the face from one of the old cartoons – SHE WAS NEW ON THE JOB!
She also was by herself. She probably has been scared to death by all the new health regulations. She had on gloves and a mask. Her glasses had steamed up, which happens when working and wearing a mask.
The more I thought about it, I realized it’s a brutal time for people in retail.
What she needed from me was a little kindness and patience.
A comment like, “I bet these jobs are tough right now with COVID” would have put her at ease.
Instead, I was rude.
TRY A LITTLE KINDNESS
I thought of this incident when brainstorming for a faith column idea with one of my friends.
“My wife and I were talking about how it’s not that hard to be kind,” he said. “You know, the Golden Rule."
The Golden Rule is: “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.”
In Matthew 22:35-40, Jesus is asked, “What is the greatest commandment?”
He replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind...the second is Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
I have all that memorized. I have taught it in jail ministry.
But when there was a chance to put it into action with someone who was stressed, I was acting like a 2-year-old who wanted his way, and wanted it right now.
Glen Campbell used to perform a song called Try a Little Kindness that includes this line: “Show a little kindness, just shine your light for everyone to see.”
And when we don’t, we can shut down the light in their eyes.
A BIG QUESTION
Are people naturally kind, giving and patient or are we naturally selfish?
It’s one of those eternal debates.
I fall into the selfish camp, which is a Biblical point of view. I mentioned a 2-year-old. Don’t you have to teach an toddler to share and think about others?
It’s very hard for a child to see the world other than through childish eyes.
Or as my friend said, “You don’t need to tell the kid to be a bully, or quit being so nice."
Consider our thoughts? If we saw a transcript from any given day, what percentage of our thoughts have to do with our agenda? Now compare that to how often we think of others first.
I don’t want to see that transcript, how about you?
Obviously, some of us are far more kind and patient than others. My wife is one. But for many of us, it’s a real spiritual and emotional battle.
TIME & LOVE
There’s old song by Laura Nyro called Time and Love. I hadn’t heard it in years, but it came to mind while writing this. Here’s the chorus:
Time and Love. Nothing cures like Time and Love
Don’t let the devil fool you, here comes the dove...nothing cures like time and love.
OK, this song from 1969 is a nostalgia trip for me because I like Nyro’s music.
But the idea of “time and love..."
It takes time to be kind.
The word “time” comes first because it’s often so hard to give away our time.
Or consider 1 Corinthians 13: 4-5: “Love is patient, love is kind...it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered.”
Kindness takes time, and St. Paul’s verses first hook love to patience, then to kindness.
And it’s something I need to pray for the strength to give away each day.
RECENT TERRY PLUTO FAITH & YOU
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When you go the store, do you see the mask-wearing clerk as a person?
The Link LonkOctober 31, 2020 at 04:23PM
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2020/10/is-it-that-hard-to-be-kind-yes-it-is-and-heres-why-terry-plutos-faith-you.html
Is it that hard to be kind? Yes, it is, and here’s why – Terry Pluto’s Faith & You - cleveland.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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