I experienced one of those cravings for a Coke tonight on my way home from church. My wife and I have been trying to cut back on sugary, carbonated drinks. And rather than keep a “private stock” in the frig, I have been stopping by a convenience store when I “just gotta have it.”
And thus, I stopped at one of these very convenient stores about a mile from my house. Finishing a text to one of my former university students, I stepped out of my car, walked in the door, made my way back to the beverage cooler, and selected three sixteen ounce cans; two Cokes and one Pepsi.
Retracing my steps, I stopped by the candy rack, and picked out a Snickers bar. Finally, I stepped up to the counter, pulled out a ten dollar bill, and prepared to pay for my bounty. Within seconds, a late sixty or early seventy something year old lady strode quickly from the back room, and up to yours truly.
As the clerk “rang me up,” I remarked,
“You are a brave lady.”
(and)
“The Lord must be riding with you.”
Without so much as a smile or nod of the head, or quizzical look denoting a lack of understanding, she replied,
“Yes, He is. I love and serve Him.”
(and)
“I have been held up five times; with a gun, a knife, a hammer, and I didn’t stop to see what the other two were holding in their hands.”
(and)
“Years ago, I studied psychology and sociology.”
With this, I mentioned that I had studied the same curriculum, and that I was a counselor.
Pt. 2
The lady behind the counter continued.
“Well, I planned to become a psychologist, but I had three children to raise.”
(It is important to understand that the position of Doctor of Psychology requires a total of approx. 8-10 years of undergrad and graduate studies).
She finished her brief monologue.
“I’ve done this work for 50 years.”
(And it occurred to me that she had begun this line of work a year before I enlisted in the Air Force during the Vietnam War)!
I was almost speechless when the aging lady behind the convenience store counter told me that she had once been in the process of preparing herself to be a psychologist. But I was equally flabbergasted when she said she had stood behind a convenience store counter for fifty years!
Having regained my composure, I spoke again.
“Well, what matters is whether you are making a difference in lives. And I have to think you have done that for a very long time.”
Now it was my momentary friend’s turn to be speechless. It was like she was reflecting on what she might have been, and how her life had fallen together.
(and)
It was like in those few seconds which transpired between bagging my soft drinks, and me walking out the door, she found herself thinking of those fifty years standing behind a convenience store counter, and wondering whether she had really made any difference in the lives with which she had to do.
In one case, it made me sad that this dear convenience store clerk had never fulfilled her dream to become a psychologist. But in another case, I like to think I encouraged and affirmed her for the gifts with which God has endowed her, and the words and actions wherewith He has given her to make a difference in the lives He has set in her pathway for such a long time.
by William McDonald, PhD. Copyright pending
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