How awful that day will be! No other will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it.

• Jeremiah 30:7

Therefore, the Lord says: “I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.

• Micah 2:3

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

• 2 Timothy 1:9-10

The first Scripture says that calamity will strike, but Judah will be saved.  The second Scripture says that the people involved will have calamity and there is no escape.  But the third Scripture speaks of us being saved of God’s purpose by grace, nothing we have done, and we have something important to live for, to be with Jesus forever.  Note: None of these verses say anything about saving time.

Somehow all three of those applied to a recent trip to a department store.  The wholesale warehouse store was not yet open, so I had to get a few groceries and a pharmacy item.  The quick in and out at the department store would get me to the wholesale store about the time they open.  Beautiful timing!  I would minimize my time away from my writing.

I was able to get a parking space not horribly far from the front of the store.  Amazing how many handicap spaces there are, but none were available.

I was able to find everything except for one item.  That made me walking up and down aisles longer than I anticipated.  I got to the front and they had two checkout clerks.  I had a couple of items that made the self check a pain, so I got in the shortest line.  But there was someone asking for a price check and the other line was about as long.  The lady in front of me had hundreds of items.  You know the ones that use the area underneath to its max and hang things over the sides of the cart and then pile a mountain of things in the cart.

I changed lanes.

That should be on my headstone. “He changed lanes.”  You know when you change lanes, the lane you moved into will slow down.

But what could happen?  One lady was paying for her things.  The next lady had maybe less than twenty items.  What could go wrong?  A lot could go wrong.  After all, I changed lanes into this one.

The woman paid for her groceries.  She was very irritating, constantly talking on her Bluetooth that she was in aisle 11.  She never told the person over the phone what store she was in.  She just kept screaming that she was in aisle 11.  With Bluetooth, you cannot hear the other person’s questions.  While yelling into the Bluetooth, she looked over her receipt.  Then she counted the items in her cart.  Then she started screaming at the checkout clerk that the store had stolen some of her items.  The checkout clerk kept her cool.  She smiled and spun the carousel around.  “No, ma’am.  Here are your remaining items.”  The woman, now in full rage, spun the carousel back around to the clerk.  “Don’t you spin this spinny thing at me!!!!”  The clerk smiled, “No. ma’am, here are your items.”  The clerk picked up one from the bag to show her.  She carefully rolled the carousel back.  The woman grabbed the bag with the rest of her items.  But she was not done.  She started cursing the family that owned much of the department store chain.  “I know how they got so rich by stealing little old lady’s things that they bought and hiding them in those infernal spinny things!  Where is the manager when you need one?”  The manager was definitely going to let the checkout clerk take the abuse.  The manager was not going to talk to the crazy old lady.  By this time, three people who had been behind me in the other lane had already checked out.  But the woman, seeing that she could not create a big enough stink slowly walked far enough away so that the checkout clerk could check out the next person.

The next person did not have a lot of items, but they were from all over the store.  Her total was $77 and a few cents.  At this point, someone came by to congratulate the checkout clerk for having graduated high school 2-3 days before.  Then another checkout person came by and welcomed her.  It was her first day on the job, and she had expertly handled an irate crazy person.

The woman in front of me handed the girl a gift card, but the girl did not swipe it properly.  She turned to the lady and said that her total came to $127 and change.  The woman said that the only reason she was in the store was that some one had given her the gift card.  She was using it, not buying it.  The experienced checkout clerk had not started his register yet, so he tried to help her.  The woman’s total was now $177 and change.  They called for the manager, but the manager was still in hiding.  The experienced clerk started up his register and quickly had three people checked out, but the line behind me had me trapped.

The lines, one on either side moving near the speed of light or so it seemed, but our aisle, aisle 11.  The crazy lady had driven the number into my head.  We were trapped and there was no escaping the calamity, as the Micah Scripture described.

By this point, I knew I was the cause since I had changed lanes.  “Everybody” knows not to change lanes!!!  All I could do was to lean against my cart, smile, offer sympathy to the lady who was charged $100 for trying to use a gift card someone had given her.  “Happy birthday!”

Finally, seeing that our line was not moving, the lady from customer service came over.  She had one customer waiting, but our line was getting too long.

Within ten minutes she had cleared the two erroneous $50 charges and credited the gift card.  It was not easy.  It kept saying that something was wrong, and the transaction could not be cancelled, but somehow, she succeeded.  She went back to her customer, who seemed to be entertained by our misery, maybe because he wasn’t in our aisle, aisle 11.

I already had everything on the conveyor belt.  I was committed.  What could go wrong?  The lady in front simply had to pay the $27 and change.  The register rejected her credit card and her debit card before the newbie clerk noticed an alarm that too many errors had occurred, and the card reader was blocked until the transaction was cancelled or completed.  But it could not be completed since the card reader was locked out.  But this was not a Catch 22.  The woman said, “Can we cancel the credit card reader entirely, and you can let me pay cash?  That is if I have enough?  At this point, I pulled out my wallet, just in case.  It was worth $27 and change.”

Luckily, she had enough cash, $28 in bills.  She waited for her change.  She turned to me and apologized.  I told her that it might not get worse, so maybe she would have a blessed day from this point forward.  She laughed all her way to the exit.  Others probably thought she was the crazy lady from earlier.

It took me a couple of minutes to check my stuff out.  I told the newbie checkout clerk how good a job she had been doing, even though it might not seem that way.  And I wished her a blessed day.  I checked my watch as I arrived at the wholesale warehouse store, catching every light on the green.  The store had been open for over an hour.

I could see it as an hour and about fifteen minutes in the worst calamity ever.  Or I could see it as entertainment that made the troubles in my life seem mild.  But I hope they had this girl’s first day at work on video.  Regardless of the mistakes she made, and customers made, she kept her smile planted on her face, and she was courteous.  The store has a winner with her, if she doesn’t find a better job somewhere else after that fiasco.

This story is true. But it was a test of faith in a way. I smiled. I encouraged. And in the midst of chaotic “entertainment” I found peace with those around me.

And what are we to do?  We are to show God’s light to others.  Getting upset only adds to the misery that others have.  Besides …

I Changed Lanes!

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.