Be the Change (even in the grocery store line)

When I go out in public and I have to deal with large crowds or stupid people, I begin to ask the Lord to give me a love for humanity (just keeping it real). Today I had to go buy school supplies for my daughters, off we go down that rabbit hole and boy did we fall; four stores later and I landed back at home. Yes, today was a Monday for sure! Drop the dog off for surgery, grocery shopping, a quick workout (sanity people sanity), haircut, and the children’s errands that lasted three hours. Whew it was enough to do me in for a good week, IT WAS A MONDAY…

Seriously though I was standing in a crowd everywhere (I won’t even get into how long the line was at the uniform store) and intellectually I know God expects me to behave well but emotionally I am Elaine (from Seinfeld) in the episode when she got stuck on the subway car… yeah… that’s me the imperfect Christian.

I know if I want the world around me to be a better place change has to begin with me, change equals transformation (so I painstakingly am learning to operate in grace, I’d quote another movie scene to reference my inner self but I will spare you). I hear this voice inside me say “if we want to change the world around us, we first must change what is going on inside us.” And to be honest, I know as a Pastor I need to walk the talk. I can’t stand pastors that are above their own sermons.  Atmospheric change- when we step in the room the atmosphere should change for the better; that can apply to both Christians and non-Christians. But as a believer I feel we are empowered to do that by walking in grace. It’s hard to have grace when all you want to do is exchange the shirt in the package because the store screwed up your order and you are in a line for literally 20 minutes! I tell you it’s hard to walk in the power to change the atmosphere when all you want to do is punch people in the face and yet we are still called to do it… insert grumbling…

Transformation begins with our expectation. For me it’s about going with the expectation that the Lord has a plan (even if He is testing my grace skills in a checkout line for 20 minutes, or crowds at every store I walk into, His methods are not always orthodox, I fully believe God has a sense of humor). Transformation comes through our expectation of God to move on our behalf.

We change things through faith, grace, and love. (Again, these are tough issues for me, not so much the faith part but the grace and love because let’s face it people are tough creations to cohabitate with.) God is not the God of violence but of deep sympathy and empathy and imparts those qualities to us.

If you want change, you have to be the change- even in the grocery store line… Good Nite Ladies!