Working Retail

It has been a long and trying week and a half at work. I’m a project manager for a home improvement company where I work exclusively on bathroom and kitchen remodeling projects. I had the day off May 29^th  with no solid plans for the day. I was just hoping to relax, maybe paint my nails, run some laundry, and finish reading my book—you know, spend the day on myself.

I received a call from work early in the morning while I was home in my PJ’s. My general contractor had been fired. I found out later that it was for theft, so they didn’t even want him to complete jobs he had bid, sold, or started. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I had recently sold a project to an extremely rude, difficult client who, from time to time, has resorted to transforming into a fanged monster and screaming at me and cussing me out. That seems to be her main mode of communication. Anyway, long story short, because I wasn’t there to deal with it (…on my day off…) a corporate guy came down and stepped in to fix it. I’ve been cleaning up his suave fix ever since. 

After being cussed out by said customer again on Friday, I was at my breaking point. I caught myself just spewing the craziest notions. As I was saying these things, I realized how ridiculous they must sound to God, but I was so full of anger that I just couldn’t stop myself. “I am so sick of being screamed at by that woman! This is the second time she has called me up just to cuss me out. I even sent her a get-well card after her surgery last week! How can she treat me like that?! I don’t deserve it! I’m a good person—I go to church, I’m nice to people, I come to work every day and pay my taxes and contribute to society. It’s so degrading to be treated that way and if it happens again, I’ll quit!”

 

Wow. I, I, I, I, I, I, I. Am I that selfish? Does going to church or paying taxes really set me above anyone else? Absolutely not! I am reminded of a verse from Isaiah 64 that says, “We’re all sin-infected, sin-contaminated. Our best efforts are grease-stained rags (MSG).” It’s so easy sometimes to get lost in our first-world “problems” and forget why we’re here, who we serve, and what’s important in the big picture. At the end of my life, it won’t matter whether I had a satisfied customer with a smile on her face when all was said and done, but it will matter whether my attitude and words reflected the love and patience of God. Am I trashing my character every time I encounter unpleasantness, or am I using it as an opportunity to show Christ-like love and forgiveness? Am I letting these small problems build and fester, or am I learning to count my blessings in between? I know I need to do better. But I know I can’t do it. I have to lay every problem, worry, frustration, and sin at the feet of Jesus and trust Him to handle it. Please pray for me as I try to learn/work through this situation.