I had a heartbreaking moment last week at Meijer’s. I just wanted to share a bit about my experience and my thoughts about what I witnessed. I’ve been praying about it a lot, but I wanted to take a minute to write down my thoughts. So I went into Meijer’s to get a few groceries, nothing too much, just a few essentials. Of course, it was early evening on a Thursday, and everybody had just gotten off work. So the store was hectic, and the self-checkouts were very busy, so I figured it would be as easy to go and check out at a regular checkout with a checker as it would go through the self-check. I always enjoy interacting with the Checker anyway. So I was waiting in line, and the woman ahead of me had a lot of coupons for her groceries, no problem. So as this woman is checking out, I start putting my stuff on the belt. The Checker was a fairly young gal, probably in the high school age range. She finishes checking out the gal ahead of me, nicely thanks her for shopping at Meijer, and then moves on and starts checking out my stuff. The Checker was friendly, and we discussed the cold weather that day. This lady who had just gotten through the line was looking at her receipt as she walked out. Apparently, she noticed that one of her coupons didn’t go through correctly because this lady had a COW and started screaming at the Checker as if it were her fault. Believe it or not, my heart broke for BOTH women in that moment.
First, My heart broke for the Checker; she was young and innocent and had just made a simple mistake. As a Former Checker, I understood how easy it is to make mistakes. After all, we’re all just humans, not one better than another, just all sinners in need of a Savior. She looked ready to break down in tears as this woman tore her apart. I will always struggle to understand why people treat others like they do. This woman was looking down on this Checker just because she had made a simple mistake as if that lady was perfect (spoiler alert: nobody is). Growing up in a public school, we always heard a lot about the golden rule of “Treat others how you want to be treated,” but sadly, I don’t see it in this world as often as I would like. Wouldn’t it be nice if everybody could be this way? Nobody wants to be degraded or yelled at, so why should we do that to other people? It would have been just as easy for the lady to either ask the Checker very nicely about the mistake (and I’m sure the Checker would have been more than glad to fix it and apologize) or she could have taken it to the customer service counter instead of making a whole scene.
Secondly, my heart broke for the woman screaming at the Checker. It can be hard to see the best in anyone when they are acting like this, but it made me realize something really important. As unique as our God is, there are still SO many people in this world who don’t know him. So many people don’t realize the transformation he can do in their lives and how much he can change their perspective on life and others, which breaks my heart. I hurt for this woman in that moment. At that moment, she could have turned to ANY other emotions but chose to turn to Anger. Often, when we have nowhere else to turn, negative emotions such as sadness, Anger, hate, and things like that are automatically what we turn to. Knowing Jesus changes all of that, though. Knowing Jesus transforms not only our lives but also the lives of those around us.
That being said, I don’t know her backstory. I didn’t know where she came from, who she was, or what kind of day she was having, so I chose not to say anything to the woman. In moments like this, the world thinks you should choose Anger. The world says you should automatically release the first emotion that runs through your head, but nothing could be further from the truth. Romans 12:18 (NIV) has recently become one of my favorite scriptures. It says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”. I firmly believe, at that moment, that living in peace with everyone was possible. Living at peace with others is much simpler than many people realize. When we are making an effort to live at peace with everyone, it means we choose not to escalate any disagreement or conflict. Is it always easy? Not in any way, shape, or form. It does mean, however, that we have internal peace, knowing that we’re living the way God intended for us to, and allow other people to live in peace by not arguing or initiating conflict. At that moment, the lady had no reason to act the way she did. She had no reason to degrade a fellow human like that other than pride and Anger. Anger about the mistake and pride in looking at herself and thinking she was better than the Checker. There are a million and one things in this world that make us different, but at the end of the day, when you strip all of that away, we’re all human. We’re all just sinners, desperately needing a savior, not one better than the other.
So as we continue to walk through day to day life, let’s keep putting others before ourselves. Let’s stay humble and keep loving others just as God loves us because this world will transform when more people start to live that out! People will see that we live differently and want to be a part of that which will lead more people to Jesus!