Storytime with Sarah: Encounters with God at Work (or, The Ballad of Bed Bath & Beyond)

I’m a customer service associate at Bed Bath & Beyond. I know, glamorous. I deal with customer complaints, returns, bridal registries, not to mention tending to a multi-line phone system. That means I’ll often have real customers as well as “fake” ones (you know, the voices on the phone aren’t real). Meanwhile I’m switching frantically from Line 3 to Line 2 and back to Line 6.

Line 1 rings.

“Thank you for calling Bed Bath & Beyond. Sarah speaking. How may I direct your call?”

Line 1: I’m on the highway and I’m coming from Queens. I need directions to get to your store. How do I get there?

Me: Well, you get on the –

BRRRRRING!!

Line 4: Hi, I just received a gift from my bridal registry in the mail. But when it arrived at my house, all the plates were broken. What can you do about it?”

Me: OK Ma’am, please hold as I dir-

Then, of course, a LIVE customer (meaning, one directly in front of me – not on some fuzzy airwave of jumbled telephone cords) walks up to me, demanding to know why the store stinks so much (someone clogged up the bathroom. O joy) and would I please check her out so she can get the heck out of there.

“If you don’t hurry this up, I’m leaving the store! I could get sick like this. It’s a health violation - an outrage!!!!”

I blink. And continue.

This is just a fraction of my day. And I haven’t even gotten to the dusty, moldy four-year-old bath mat that a customer suddenly decides “doesn’t work.” I haven’t touched on the elderly couple – one senile man and his demanding wife – taking up a good 30 minutes of the line just to understand how their return was processed. Three associates (two of them managers) explain it to them in plain English…and still, to no avail.

I want to cry.

* * *

But then, there are days that go a lot smoother. When one lady remarks on how I have “beautiful eyes.” A tussled-hair tot with azure blue googly eyes waves at me ‘bye bye.’ An older gentlemen hits on me: “So when did they finally decide to hire pretty girls?” Another grandpa thanks me in ‘Chinese’ – “Shay shay (Xie Xie). I bet you didn’t expect that, huh?” A soft-spoken lady with crows’ feet who is wearing a golden cross, remarks: “Sarah…what a wonderful name. Are you named after someone?”

When those days happen, I’m thankful that God is with me. Even during the trying moments when I want to pull out my hair (or rip the Botox off a customer) I’m reminded that God is testing me, refining my character. Humbling me. All of this will make sense in the end. God has not abandoned me.

And that’s not all. If you acknowledge that God is working in each person’s life (even the nastiest person you know), I think you’d agree that your perspective starts to change. You become kinder, gentler, more gracious and patient. You begin to see Jesus all around you. Or rather – glimpses of the God seed.

Now, I’m not suggesting that the homeless guy on the street suddenly sprouts a glowing halo. What I’m saying is this: If you allow God to work in your life and change your preconceptions of people…if you love others as God loves them, rather than how you think they deserve…you will be more at peace. You will not take offense so easily. You will not blow up in anger so easily. You won’t be the Levite haughtily turning the other way.

Because, trust me, many a day has passed by that I’ve questioned God – “How long am I going to be doing this? What’s next for me? What happens now?” After all, retail Customer Service Associate is a far cry from my magazine journalism degree. Let’s just say I didn’t expect to be doing this gig for as long as I have [almost 5 months, and counting]. But hey, you do what you have to do to make ends meet. And when the next big opportunity arrives, you pounce on it!

I’m not sure how close I am to deciphering my next move, but I do know this – God is good. He works things for good. Maybe not the way we expected, but good nonetheless. This is a cross-country road trip, and I’m sitting shotgun to the Big Man Upstairs at the wheel. And I’m down with that.