Everybody Needs a Little Grace

Grace.

That can be a hard one. I have been known to occasionally respond to situations in a passive aggressive manner. Especially as it relates to customer service. For a while, I made excuses for this behavior. It’s okay for me to be frustrated because I spent years in customer service. I know what good customer service is, and this isn’t it. That was the lie I told myself to justify my bad behavior.

Today, I made an appointment to have the oil changed on my vehicle at a major retail box store’s auto center. Realizing it was Saturday, I made my appointment online in hopes of reducing my waiting time. I was a little annoyed when I parked in the 100+ degree heat and went inside to check in (as the instructions I received directed) only to find out that they wanted me to drive up to the garage entrance instead. The nice lady at the register did acknowledge that their local procedures don’t match the instructions we are provided and she apologized. I signed, probably a little heavier than I should have, and headed back into heat to move the car.

I spent most of my free time grocery shopping while my vehicle was being serviced, but I headed back 30 minutes into my hour-long appointment. As I sat there, I listed to the woman at the counter interacting with others. She was gracious to everyone, as she had been with me. I think her grace saved the day.

There were two men there waiting for their vehicles and it was clear they had been there a long time. Neither of them had appointments, and they were both approaching the 3-hour mark. Nobody raised their voices, despite their clear frustration. Nobody criticized. They simply waited patiently.

When I worked as a correctional officer at a maximum-security prison, we had a saying, “Approach determines response.” How a prisoner approaches an officer directly correlates to how the officer is likely to respond back to the prisoner. This is exactly what happened with the woman at the counter this afternoon. And also, exactly the way Jesus taught His followers to treat one another.

At the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught his followers to love their enemies and to show kindness even to those who were not kind in return. This behavior is exactly what was displayed today. Without getting into all the gory details, with tons of people waiting for hours, there was an incident right before I was going to pay for my service when an interloper (who wasn’t even there for auto service but came to purchase a mop) jumped the line.

Nobody freaked out. Nobody raised their voices. No one (not even me) was passive aggressive to the man who clearly walked right in front of all of us who had been called up to pay for our services. Instead, we showed him the same type of grace that she had been showing to everyone else all afternoon.

Always show grace.