Monster Customers

I work in my university’s bookstore for a learn and earn program. Mostly my job description is sitting behind the counter, watching people walk in and out, talk with a few people who decide to chat, and when we have a customer, check them out. But mostly, I just sit watch, hour by hour. Right in front of the counter, first thing I see when I look up and first thing anyone sees when they walk in is a large, three-tier gondola, shelving just about every t-shirt we sell in the store. Which makes it a popular area of merchandise for customers to look through.

Each customer comes in looking to fulfill a need or want. They rifle through the products until they find whatever might satisfy that need or want, but sometimes they just don’t care about how they go about finding the product they’re looking for. That gondola is usually the messiest shelf (other than the clearance shelf) in the store. I suppose one of my job duties is maintaining a neat and welcoming area, which means that I have to clean up after what I refer to as the “monster customers” when they sift through our stacks of t-shirts leaving them unfolded, piled up, and quite disheveled. You have no idea how annoying it is to clean up after all kinds of strangers who don’t care at all about the mess they leave behind them- it’s not their job to clean it up after all.

Doesn’t this sound like life? We do it ourselves, and watch other people do it to. We feel a want or a need and we try to fulfill that desire by any means possible- it doesn’t matter how we get there, only that we do. We can mess up the lives of the people around us or mess up everything that is a part of our own lives while we’re still in hunt mode for that one specific thing that we imagine is going to be the perfect product- love, meaning, worth, success, experience, etc. I mean really think about it, what might you be aiming for right now? Are you distracted from maintaining anything else in your life, like friendships or family relationships? How about education? Is that bum guy you’re sleeping with because you believe he loves you, really going to help you live the life that you want? What’s your career like? Exciting, fascinating… How are your family and friends doing?

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t aim high and fight for whatever goals we make, but that we should only pay more attention about how we go about our achieving our goals. For example, if you’re looking for love, don’t settle for the first bum who says that he thinks he loves you. Some people try to help us fix our messes, or we try to do it on our own, but the truth is that the big mistakes we make aren’t messes that we can clean up. That’s not part of our job description. Our job description would probably be something like, “Do the best you can.” It’s Christ though that cleans up our mess. He already has, already is, and if we ask for the help, probably will. It’s the asking for help part that we get hung up on sometimes, isn’t it? But let’s face it- we can’t go back and clean up the trail we left behind us, because we don’t have any control over any time but the present. So, are you making a mess or trying to avoid one? It’s decision we have to make every day, multiple times. Sometimes though, it’s just best to ask the clerk for help finding the thing you think you want- He might know the Lifestore’s inventory a little better.

Love and warm wishes!