“When will you go on your next mission trip?”
It’s a question I used to get asked all the time, the answer used to be, “I don’t know, when ever the Lord sends me.”
This time my answer was different, “I’m living a mission trip. I’m on one now, so are you.”
It’s something I really wanted/tried to stress to people in the church when I came back from the World Race. America is a mission field. You don’t have to get on a plane to be a missionary. You can be a missionary at your place of work, the doctors office, Target, to strangers, friends, family. Any where.
I got a job in customer service so that I could be Jesus to customers. To be in contact with more people than I could be at an office job. It’s a challenge. People are difficult, in a hurry, grumpy, intolerant. I mean, I could go on, but this isn’t the focus.
Lately Jesus has been showing me how I view people, how I view customers specifically. It’s so easy to pick out the people who are less than friendly. I love when people empathize with me, those interactions are etched in my brain so I can tell everyone how someone just treated me. “Can you believe it? They did this, they didn’t even say thank you.” I have good interactions with people too, more than bad, but it’s so easy to forget about those.
That’s not Jesus. I’m not treating people like Jesus would. He gave me this job to spread love, instead I am spreading negativity. That’s not easy to say, or even put out there for you to know, but it’s the truth.
Do you find yourself focusing on the negative? What if I told people about my kind, loving, polite interactions? I know my environment would be way more positive. What if I spoke life to that person who just treated me less than I would prefer? “I hope she has a great day, their next interaction is going to be awesome.”
We are atmosphere changers. For the worse, or better. We have control over the kind of atmosphere we are in. I’ve started trying to forget the less than desirable interactions. I’ve written “loving kindness” on my arm to remind me that I may be the only Love (with a capital L) some people run into today. Life is hard, not everyone can treat me the way I’d like, but I can treat everyone the way I’d like to be treated.
I may not be getting on a plane tomorrow to go touch the people of the world, but I am getting in my car to touch the customers of Heinen’s. May we not easily forget who we live for, and whose we are. How poorly I’m treated doesn’t change the fact that I’m a daughter of the King. How I treat people can change their outlook on today, and that’s the kind of deli clerk I want to be.
