I’m standing at the food table at work and I’m rolling meat before the lunch rush and I’m thinking, “What am I doing with my life?” I am an extremely passion driven person. I have goals. I have dreams. I want to go live in new and exciting places. I want to do things I’ve never done before. I want to learn new languages, climb mountains, sweat, and eat exotic food. But most importantly, I want to change people’s lives. And what am I doing with my summer? I’m making sandwiches. I’m making coffee. I’m rolling meat.
As I’m standing there, methodically and meticulously rolling
the meat, I think to myself, “How are you living out any of your dreams right
now?” Sure, I’m a poor college student who is home for the summer and my only
real goal is supposed to be to make money, but still. You can’t just live life with
your only goal being to make money. I’ve never been that kind of person and I
never will be. I love people so much. I want love to be the outcome of what I
do. I want to be able to reach out to people and change their lives for the
better. I want to bring light to people. And then it hit me…
You’re an idiot.
My job, what I’ve been paid to do for the past two summers,
customer service, is all about people. It’s all about serving. I mentally
scolded myself immediately and began to think of all the things I’ve learned
about people and how to love them by working in customer service. And then I
realized what a great blog post it would be, because let me tell you, I have
learned A LOT. So here we are. This will be a two-part post because of the
amount of information I would like to share with you. I hope you gain something
from it.
I would like to begin this topic like I like to begin most
topics: from a missional and an anthropological standpoint. There is a quote
from one of my favorite movies, Elizabethtown, that has been my life motto:
“I don't know a lot about everything, but I do know a lot
about the part of everything that I know, which is people.”
I have had a knack for people my whole life. I can relate.
I can connect with them. I have a sick sense of empathy. I can see through
them. I can see the best in them. All of these things are gifts given to me by
God, but they’ve also oftentimes been curses. Because people are broken and
hurting and that brokenness can wear on you. I’ve learned that the hard way
many times.
While working at the coffee shop/café that I work at, I
have met many different kinds of people. I grew up in middle class suburbia and
to be honest I only saw a handful of blacks and Mexicans in my town. The coffee
shop I work at is only about eleven-ish miles away from where I grew up and yet
the amount of diversity I encounter there is off the charts comparatively.
Whites are sometimes the minority (which is not a bad thing in my opinion). I
deal with at least two to three, sometimes more, customers a day that do not
speak English very well. And I’ve seen some very sad, poor, lost, and broken
people.
There are two groups of people that make up the majority
of the customers that come through the shop: the obviously broken and the
broken behind a mask. The obviously broken come in many different forms; some
are dirty, disheveled, and disillusioned. Others look just like me but don’t
really have proper social skills. And yet others sit in the shop for hours and
talk to themselves. These are the ones that are the hardest to watch and the
easiest to love, in my opinion. They are almost always grateful and easy to
please. They’re the ones I want to go above and beyond for. They’re the ones who
thrive on your light because all they know is darkness.
The other group, the ones behind the mask, are the ones
who are the business men and women who work in the building we share. They get
up, go to work, hate work, go home, maybe hate home, get in bed, think about
how much they hate work and home, and then get up the next morning only to
start the day all over. Sometimes this group is the hardest for me to study
(because let’s face it, I’m always studying) and serve. Most of the time they
are angry and they usually take it out on me. They are rushed and sarcastic.
They act like they have everything together and you don’t just because you
messed up their white chocolate mocha. But really, they’re so incredibly broken
inside. They are always working so hard to hide whatever piece of their life
that has fallen apart. They are the ones that most people, including myself,
don’t want to show love to because they don’t seem to want or need it. But I’m
learning that sometimes they’re the ones who need it the most.
So, what does this all mean?
I’m sure if you’re reading this you are or have worked
in customer service sometime in your life. It’s one of the most underrated and
least appreciated jobs there is. It also makes up the majority of jobs out
there. We all need groceries, gas, coffee, etc. We all have to go buy things
and eat dinner. And all of those things are at places where people work.
They’re job is to serve you. And if you’re like me, you’re the one doing the
serving. It’s a hard job sometimes. But it is one of the most important mission
fields there is. When I hand people their coffee, remember their name, or
strike up conversation with them about how their day is going, I am sharing the
love of God with them. Because God and I both know I couldn’t share love with
them on my own. Just by doing these small things with a joyful heart and a
willingness to love them, I am bringing a light into their life that they may
not see the rest of the day. It may sound overdramatic, but it’s true.
I’ve learned so much about people and how to love them
better by working in customer service. I have also learned a lot about how to
be a better customer to others working in this field. I will discuss these
things practically in my next post. But for now, I challenge you to see people
a little differently than you usually do, especially if you work with
customers, or heck, if you have co-workers or a boss. Because everyone is
fighting a battle. That is one of the biggest clichés in the book, but it’s
also one of the truest. The people
we encounter in our daily lives can make or break us.
Which kind of person are you for others?
Avery
