On Justice, Mercy and Customer Service

Anyone who has worked in a customer service position understands: the customer is always right...unless they're wrong. Unfortunately, they are often wrong. And when they are, it takes every ounce of restraint I have not to use the business end of my size 12's.

January and February at the bookstore always have a way of bringing about vindictiveness in me. I mean, there are plenty of good reasons to be angry, right? I was unjustly accused. I was yelled at. I was called a liar. I was stolen from. The Christian kids at Bethel should know better. They should know better.

And then it happens. I do something reprehensible...and I should have known better. And at that point, it's unthinkable to me that the offended party wouldn't immediately forgive me. Because, apparently, I deserve it...

And there is my double standard, my two-facedness, my hypocrisy. My natural reaction is to lobby for swift, definitive justice when others have done wrong and yet to invoke mercy when the error is mine. Certainly this is the opposite of Christ-like character and love. After all, Christ did not tell us to take up our cross so that we could impale others at will. Rather, we carry the cross so that we can die to ourselves--to our self-perceived rights and entitlement--that we might always view conflict through the lens of grace and mercy. I have so far to go.