I had just sent my co-worker to lunch and was settling in at the front desk when she arrived. She was around 5’4” skinny as a rail long brown hair pulled up into a tight pony tail. Behind her scurried a woman of 50 or so, carrying a pumpkin seat and looking frightened. As she walked down the hall I could hear her before I saw her. She was telling her companion to hurry up, be sure to keep that baby quiet, and she was cussing every other word. She came in, attitude oozing out of every pore, and informed me that she wanted a job. At this time, I was working at a staffing agency as a manager of this office. I started to explain our application process and she continually rolled her eyes. We had an in depth application process, and she interrupted me with a “how long is this gonna take?” in a very perturbed voice. After seeing how she was interacting with me and with her companion, I informed her that it took around an hour, but seeing her attitude I could tell her now that she wasn’t right for the customer service positions that we had available and I wasn’t going to waste her time or mine. I told her, she could fill out the application and I could put her into the system if something else came available.
Apparently, no one had ever stood up to this girl before. Her 50-year-old companion’s eyes widened and I could hear her inhale deeply. Then, the girl went off! I can honestly say I have officially been cussed out and had my life threatened now. She informed me that she didn’t need my job and the place where I could put it. She also informed me that she was going to call her friends and be waiting for me outside to take me out. It was a lovely situation, one that I would rather not repeat, but a good learning experience none the less.
First impressions are huge. She didn’t care about anyone but herself. She couldn’t have cared less if people thought that she was a terror on two feet. There are so many days that I am on a tirade, or super busy or on a mission that I am so focused in on, I never see what is around me. I don’t see the person in the corner observing me and seeing that is how a Christian acts. I don’t see the person hurting, and even if I do, I don’t have time for them. I live my life intentionally, on a mission, running from one thing to the next. I don’t usually stop and look around me. What if I did?
Would I see the pain in my daughter’s eyes when I tell her, mommy is busy, I can’t sit with you right now. Would I gain friendships that are amazing? My personality is a go, go, go personality. I have to take time and backup from that and make it a take time out personality. I have to be intentional because for me, it doesn’t come naturally.
It makes me think about the Parable of the Good Samaritan. I am pretty sure most know this story already, but go and look at it again in Luke 10:30-37. The jist of the story is that a man was stripped, robbed and beaten, lying there on the road. In verse 31, a priest comes by. It doesn’t say he was a bad priest, it doesn’t say that he was too busy, he might have been a great priest, but too busy for this injured man. Maybe he thought, this man is going to hurt me, or I just don’t have time for this, maybe he thought that he was a drug addict and wouldn’t listen to him anyway, he went to the other side of the road to avoid him. Then comes a Levite. Someone who is trusted in the land, someone who does a lot for the church. He sees this man and passes to the other side of the road also. How many times do we pass to the other side of the road? How often are we the ones too busy, too important, too scared to help someone obviously in need.
Then came the Samaritan. The Samaritan was someone who ended up showing love, kindness and mercy. Do I want to be the person who comes in, runs around on a mission and leaves someone there on the ground dying, bleeding, broken and alone or do I want to be the kind of person who is compassionate, loving and helps those in need? Taking a step back today and focusing on what is real.
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