I was shocked. She was shocked. Neither one of knew what to say. For the second time in 15 seconds, the Chick-fil-A server handed me the wrong order through the window. What?!? This couldn’t be happening. She finally stammered, “I’m so sorry, Lindsey” and I corrected her, “I’m Alisa”. As I handed the second bag back to her, I said, “Hey, it’s ok. You guys are busy, so I totally understand a mix up.” She smiled weakly, handed me the correct order and said, “It was my pleasure”. I drove away realizing I
would recover quicker than she would. God bless good customer serviced training.
We all have expectations for the places and services we frequent. Chick-fil-A is known for exceptional quality and service. Where I live, they set the gold standard that we all compare other drive-throughs to. It’s good to have standards, not just for restaurants, but people in general.
Have you thought about it? What type of behavior do you expect from the people in your life? Is your standard different for family and friends than it is for strangers? How about your expectations for people you attend church with? Do you expect more or less from them when it comes to lending a helping hand? Do you apply those same standards to your coworkers? To yourself?
When it comes to how we interact with people, Jesus set the gold standard. We are to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbors as we do ourselves. Love isn’t used as a noun, but a verb. Somedays, it is hard to show love when we feel let down by people who fall short of our expectations. So, what happens then? They keys are mercy and grace. We serve a forgiving God who has an unending supply of both and, although we are only human, we are called to try to do the same. Nobody says it will be easy, but just like the Chick-fil-A server, we have to keep trying. To put it simply, when we know better, we are called to do better.