Oh My God, I Never Know How You Did It.

Working at Alltel, I find that most customers I meet, I want to choke the life out of for reasons too numerous to list. But I see this as an amazing opportunity to work on this "enemy" love that Jesus demonstrated. So I've began praying that instead of desiring to shove their cell phone down their throat, that I could Love them, and have compassion.

Boy has God really amped up the type of people hes sending me. Here is a sample conversation of what I deal with.

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(Girl Enters Store)

Me: Hi, how can I help you?

Girl: I want to put money on my (prepaid) phone.

Me: Ok, what is your phone number?

Girl (Sarcastically): You can't just put money on my account?

Me (Overly Cheerful in attempts to be patronizing): Well yes, I can, but I don't know what your account is by you just telling me you want to put money on it, I need your phone number.

Girl: 785-xxx-xxxx

Me: Ok, how much would you like to put on?

Girl: Whats my balance?

Me: Negative four cents.

Girl: Ok, I'll put four cents on it.

Me (In Disbelief): Four cents?

Girl (Sarcastically): YES.

Me (Still In Disbelief): First of all, you can only add whole dollar amounts, secondly, adding four cents would do nothing for allowing you to make phone calls.

Girl (Getting upset): Fine, put $1.04 on it.

Me: I just told you, I can only put whole dollar amounts on it.

Girl (Even More upset): Ok fine, put $5 on it.

Me (Confused): You want $5 on it now?

Girl (Upset again): YES.

Me: Ok, your total is $5.35

Girl (About to lose it): YOU SAID YOU CAN ONLY ADD WHOLE DOLLAR AMOUNTS!

Me (in shock): I did only add a whole dollar amount, but like everything you purchase, it has tax on it. If you didn't want to spend over $5, then I'll have to put $4 on it.

Girl: Noooo, I want to put $5 on it!

Me (saying "Ok" in the same way she said "No"): Ooooookkkk, then your total is $5.35 just like WHENEVER you purchase something for $5, it will come out to be $5.35 with tax. If you only have $5, then I can add $4 and the total will come out to $4.28.

Girl (More upset than ever and extremely sarcastic): BUT THATS WHY I ASKED YOU MY BALANCE, THATS WHY I ONLY WANTED TO PAY 4 CENTS!

Me (Totally confused): That makes no sense. What does you wanting to pay 4 cents have to do with the fact that we have sales tax just like everywhere you buy something?

Girl (Frustrated): I Don't WANT to add four cents, I want to add $5!

Me (Glancing to my co-worker for help): And I added $5, but with tax it is $5.35. If you want to Pay $5 EXACTLY, then you're out of luck because we can only add in whole dollar amounts and when you tax a whole dollar amount, it comes out to a non-whole dollar amount.

Girl (Acting like I blew her mind): Huh?

Me (Trying to conclude this): So do you want to put $5 on it or $4?

Girl: Just put $1 on it.

Me (Not even bothering to question this): Ok, your total is $1.07

Girl then sets a 5 dollar bill and a 1 dollar bill on the counter, in which I immediately and dramatically pick up the 1 dollar bill and give it back to her along with $3.93 from the register. Despite watching me hand back the same $1 bill that she had just laid down, the girl seemed completely unaware of why the $1 bill she gave me was unneeded.

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To be honest, our prepaid system can be a little confusing. However, checking the transaction history, this girl has come in to our store to add money about 20 times, most of those times adding $5. So why the 21st time was such a struggle for her, I do not know. What I do know, is despite her ignorance and anger, that is not a reason to be sarcastic or to try to make her feel stupid. That is not love. I'm not saying that sarcasm in and of itself is wrong or unloving, but it is when it is used to try to make someone feel stupid, like I did. I confess that. I want the kind of love that imparts value and doesn't require it. For what good is it if I just love those easy to love? No, I want to love those that don't deserve it, because that is Godly Love, that is true love.