So this last week, I returned to Illinois for my spring break. Not much has changed since I was home at Christmas time, but there was one minor thing that was different that really had a lasting impact on me, and I wanted to share a little bit about that with you. So, if you didn’t know, I took two years off of academics after high school. I worked various jobs during that time, but one of the jobs I worked was at our local grocery store chain, “Hy-Vee.” I worked at Hy-Vee from July 2021 until August 2023. In my first two months, I was a checker and stocker, and then after two months, they moved me from the store to the Gas station connected with the Grocery store. I loved the gas station a lot. I got the opportunity to share Jesus with many people. Many people would walk into my gas station as customers but left as a part of my family, which was really special. So during the entire time I worked there, there was talk that our corporate leaders would soon put in self-checkouts in our store.
I always thought that would be far off since we were just a tiny town. I had seen self-checkouts at other Hy-vee locations in larger cities but never thought it would come to us. When I came home for spring break, my worst nightmare came true. I walked into the store and didn’t even recognize the store. They had removed all the checkout lanes and replaced them with self-checkouts. Only two checkers were working that day, and the rest were self-checkouts. I was disappointed for sure, but one of the things it made me realize is How self-sufficient we’ve become as a society. We live in a society where we depend on ourselves for everything.
Every store has self-checkouts, self-kiosks, and self-automated machines, making it so that we have as little human interaction as possible. I am not saying that technology is bad, but I am saying that human interaction is essential. When I was a checker, I would always smile and have a conversation with the people I was checking out. Sometimes those conversations were about the weather, and sometimes they were about Jesus or other things. For some people, the conversations they have with the checker at the grocery store may be their only human interaction for the day. For some people, it made their day. When I would throw out a compliment here or there or something like that, but with all this self-sufficiency, you miss that. One of the things I’ve learned from being in College just how important community is. I could write 15 books on how amazing my christ-centered community is that I get to be a part of at IWU because it’s truly unique.
We all have good days, and we all have bad days, and we all have moments where we’re broken and hurting, but we AREN’T meant to do it alone! I mentioned this in one of my previous blogs but Romans 12:18 has recently become one of my favorite verses. It says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”. One of the words that stuck out to me when I first read that was WITH. I love the idea of living at peace WITH everyone. I never knew the importance of community before College. Still, looking back, I can’t help but wonder how my life would have been different if I had had that my entire life. If there’s one thing we all need in this crazy world, it’s other people around us. People to lift us up when we’re down, people to celebrate with us in the Good times and people to just simply listen when we need to be heard. That last one especially. Despite what the world says, it’s OK to have emotions, it’s OK to cry once in a while and it’s ok if there’s times where we just need to talk to someone. I have one friend in particular that is especially good at just listening and I admire that a lot about him. He never tries to jump in with a solution, but he just listens and makes me feel heard and wanted and it’s awesome and we should all have people like that. I have a wall in my bedroom that is covered from top to bottom with pictures but there’s a picture of him and I and right below it there’s a quote that says “A friend is someone who helps you up when your down, and if they can’t, they lay down beside you and listen.”. There are days where I get overwhelmed and just feel like I need someone to talk to and that friend is always there and will always make time to just sit down and listen. I try and be there for him as much as he is for me too so it isn’t all one sided. Lucky enough for us, we serve a God who always listens. A God who WANTS every part of us and constantly chases after it. I’m excited to see how God will continue to move on our campus during the rest of this semester!