Shaken and Stirred

    A few days ago I was straining myself to feel content with where I am in this process of finding out where I am meant to be concerning my career. It has been an interesting process working in a job where I deal with a lot of customers who are far from content with where they are in life, and often show it through frustration and impatience while feeling rushed to get their coffee. In those moments of receiving their frustration, or witnessing it, I always feel a responsibility to pause, consider where they are coming from, and turn away from wanting to express my feelings of being wronged by them. However, I can't always shake the feeling that it should be different. People shouldn't be allowed to treat people in a rude, condescending, self righteous or disrespectful way- it's not excusable, it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, your behavior is your responsibility, even if you really need coffee:).
     Today there was another incident where I just thought to myself, why is it that the people that are the loudest, pushy or most demanding, often get the reward of what they want? Or perhaps someone who just yelled at you felt justified to do so, because they were previously yelled at.  I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling or noticing the decline of respect and consideration, but as a Christian how are we supposed to handle these situations?
    As I was on my way to work a few days ago, while listening to the radio, a man called in and said something that has really resonated with me. He was explaining how he was infuriated by road rage, angry and wanted to react but didn't due to trying to set a good example for his kids and get to church safely. Once they arrived at church, he started to relax a bit, but couldn't shake his rage about what had happened. As the sermon started, he realized the pastor was talking about Christians being set apart and the difficulty of living in this world and not being of this world. The pastor went on to say that the struggle in this life is continual due to us being apart of the fallen race, and our flesh flares up in times of pride, which triggers our fallen self. Only when we realize the fight is no longer ours, (that when Christ died on the cross, He alone removed the weight of responsibility of having to earn our freedom in Christ, from being saved solely by our abilities) can we separate our-self from being pulled down and included in the world's view of sanctification.
     The pastor then gave a visual (may not be exactly word for word, but what I got from the description) Imagine a bottle used to scoop up water from the ocean. While scooping some water, sand got into the bottle and started to settle at the bottom, eventually becoming separated, completely settled- a lot like when we trust in God and give our lives to Him we are at peace and are trusting Him to control the details and interactions in our lives. However, when we loose focus, and allow our self to get caught in becoming riled up because something is not as we would like it, we are shaken and stirred. We become discontent and things become foggy and distressed, much like a bottle of water and sand shaken up, we lose clarity.
  I don't know why this resonated so well with me, but it gave me peace and helped me to remove how I felt about heading into a job that I am not necessarily passionate about, (besides the coffee, that is) and the stress of waiting to hear about potential career opportunities and then reminded me that I have a God who is faithful, one who has plans to prosper me, not to harm me...and that this job, is a job that is apart of his plan. Theses people are apart of his plan, and I am in the process of being refined in a loving process. I am thankful for the struggle, that it is not up to me and the blessing of living in a place where I can reflect on God's love freely and hear from people of faith share their wisdom. During my shift, I received a text from a past manager, who informed me that there were two inquiries from a district I had just applied to, asking for a reference for me, from him. I have yet to hear anything but feel blessed and joyful that this is a possibility. If not, I know God has something good in store, made just for me and my refinement.
    I read later that night a devotional called, Ending Your Day Right, by Joyce Meyers. The devotional reflected the earlier message I heard on the radio, and the only thing I can say, is that it gave me so much joy. The last line of her devotional for that night said, when ever you are feeling uncertain or down, just focus on and say this mantra, "God has something good for me today".
   Although I still get "shaken up, I know that God has something in the works and I feel more reassured than ever that God has something good for us!