Raging Storms, Harsh Voices, and Kindness

It had been one of those days attached to one of those weeks. Our daughter had been in the hospital... again... and I found myself once more standing in line at the pharmacy.

I was so tired from several difficult and very dark nights in a row. My heart was heavy for our then young teen daughter who was fighting battles that only God could win. 

I stepped up to the counter and gave the young woman at the register the needed information. She gathered the scripts and began to tell me that one had expired and would I like for them to contact the doctor. I knew he had called this med in and asked her to please check again.

It was then that an unknown voice from a man farther back in line shouted, "Hey lady, you can visit on your own time!"

Without a glimpse of a thought I spun around, in a loud voice of my own...okay, honestly I yelled at him...and I let the man know how rude he was and that the rest of us were all in line for the same reasons.

I paid for the medications and at this point I was weeping, not tearing up or even just crying, I was weeping.  I went to my car and sat there stunned at my own behavior and hurting so deeply at the same time.

I don't understand this, Lord. I don't know why...and I hate every minute of it. I'm trying to trust you. Forgive me for the way I just acted...

There was a knock on my window and, to my shame, it was the pharmacist. I expected him to ask me not to come back. I rolled the window down and began apologizing all over myself, "I'm so sorry, I don't know where that came from, please know that is not who I am..."

Instead,  he most compassionately said, "Mrs. Pierce, you are fine. That man was out of line. He is rude to our employees every time he comes in. I'm sorry this happened to you. The other medication you need will be ready this afternoon."

That was years ago. I've never had the opportunity to apologize to that man. I have thought and wondered what he carried that made him an angry soul.

Maybe he was caring for a wife with aggressive cancer or Alzheimer's.

Perhaps he was behind on his bills because of the high cost of the medication he was there to pick up.

Could he have been fighting his own battle of pain and the unknown?

Was he a believer, caught up in his own  "Where are you God" journey...or  conceivably a lost soul fighting this war alone?

One of my friends at work lives by the saying "Be kind, for everyone you know is fighting a battle you know nothing about."

There are some around us fighting many battles.

C.S. Lewis, who knew much sorrow in life, wrote on the subject on happiness and contentment on earth: "The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose and obstacle to our return to God: a few happy moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with friends, a bath or a football match, have no such tendency.  Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home."

Acts 27  recounts for us the harrowing trip Paul took as a prisoner on a ship caught up in a northeaster. Read and take heart:

 For many days neither sun nor stars appeared, and the severe storm kept raging. Finally all hope that we would be saved was disappearing.  Since many were going without food, Paul stood up among them and said, “You men should have followed my advice not to sail from Crete and sustain this damage and loss.  Now I urge you to take courage, because there will be no loss of any of your lives, but only of the ship. For this night an angel of the God I belong to and serve stood by me, and said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. And, look! God has graciously given you all those who are sailing with you.’ Therefore, take courage, men, because I believe God that it will be just the way it was told to me.  However, we must run aground on a certain island.”

What does that mean to you and me today? It means we will face incredibly scary and difficult days. Notice the severe storm raged while there was complete darkness. I know some of you can relate because in the deep of the night,  you feel the crashing waves of doubt and fear. I have been there, waking in the night to find I cannot breathe because terror has grabbed me and anxiety begins to rise.

 The encouraging news is God has not changed since that day thousands of years ago when He sent an angel to stand near and deliver the message to fear not because God was in control even as the storm raged on.

Paul believed God and we can too.

I'm praying for myself and for you. That you will know God's peace in the raging, dark storm. That we will all remember we are just passing through.

Praying we can all be kind to one another as we stand in long lines, remembering we are all in a battle.

 I wish I could turn back the years and respond to that man with kindness. It is an opportunity lost but, I certainly hope, a lesson learned.