My wife and I went to a major hardware store last night to pick up a few items for our bathroom remodel. We had picked out a color to pick up some paint along with only a few other items. We waited at the paint counter for several minutes, but no one was helping us. I turned to a manager near the check out and she evidently knew we were waiting on help, so she called for someone to come to the counter. No one ever came after 20 minutes of standing there waiting. I was ready to leave and really not upset or anything like that, but just ready to get out of the store. We went through the self-check out and when we walked into the area there were two employees standing there, but I noticed as I scanned my first item and it popped up a window saying, “Assistance Needed,” those employees were gone. I wasn’t going to wait so I just moved over and went re-scanned my items at the next self-check out. The first time the “Assistance Needed” window popped up because I had scanned a gift card that I wanted to purchase and then it popped up at the second check out because I scanned a store credit I tried to use. Believe it or not, I went to the third self-check out, scanned the same items and paid with my personal card and we left the store. Amazingly we were not mad or upset, just glad to finally be leaving because help wasn’t coming.
What God was showing me in that situation was that sometimes you have to keep trying. That’s all, just keep trying! You can get mad and upset and throw a fit and embarrass yourself and ruin your witness for Christ. Or, you can do what you can do and keep trying. We could have left the items on the counter and went to another store, but we kept trying.
1 Kings 18:43 “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked, and said, “[There is] nothing.” And seven times he said, “Go again.”
We don’t live in a perfect world and I don’t think the employees at that store were intentionally avoiding us. We will continue to shop at that store, because there are times what’s happening to you is not about other people, it’s about you and how you are going to respond. If what you’re doing isn’t working out and help is not coming, pray to God and keep trying. Don’t give up and don’t quit and don’t react in your flesh, just keep trying.
Galatians 6:9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.