Roadblock in Aisle Three

Several months ago, I was inside my local Walmart store grabbing some items that I’d neglected to add to my usual pick-up order.  Preferring others to do my shopping for me because I’m not the biggest fan of going from aisle to aisle looking for things that I can never seem to find, I thought my trip inside that store would be quick and painless.  I was making pretty good time too. If there were a Daytona 500 for grocery shoppers, let’s just say I’d be the Dale Earnhardt of them all. I don’t mess around when it comes to getting in and out of a store.  I can maneuver around people without them even realizing someone is behind them.  That unexpected breeze you feel at any given time inside a Walmart, is probably me. That’s part of the reason why my husband and I don’t often shop together because he’s all the time saying, “slow down, we’re not in a hurry.” Speak for yourself, I am always in a hurry when it comes to grocery shopping.  I want to spend as little of my time possible in a store. 

On that infamous day of hoping to get my shopping done quickly, I was whizzing in and out of aisles, breezing past people from all sides of me, and then it happened, I came to a roadblock smack dab in the middle of a main aisle in that Walmart store. That said roadblock consisted of four bantering people and their grocery carts, oblivious to the congestion that they had created. Not as much oblivious, as they were unconcerned by anyone else’s desire to make good time on their shopping spree. 

Before actually arriving at that roadblock, I had first noticed several other Walmart shoppers slowing down ahead of me, as they approached that roadblock. Given the odd angle of the congestion of those carts, I thought perhaps for a second, that someone had not yielded to a left turn, and I’d come upon a mangled mess of groceries up ahead.  However, the closer I got to that roadblock, I realized that no one had veered in any wrong direction, but instead had chosen to make an improper stop at a main intersection.

While others slowed down their carts in hopes that the roadblock would disband, I veered quickly to my right, and took a detour through the canned fruit aisle.  I wasn’t about to let anyone stop me from my mission of getting in and out of that Walmart in record time. 

With my forgotten items found and thrown inside my grocery cart, I hurried to the self-checkout counter, and started scanning my groceries.  It was just about then when I heard a woman to my right, conversing with a cashier who was standing nearby. That customer was complaining about someone who’d had the audacity to ask her and her friends to move from blocking the aisle. Taking a closer look at the complaining woman, I thought she looked a bit familiar.  Although I couldn’t pick her out in a grocery line-up, I was pretty sure she was one of those responsible for the roadblock in the main aisle of that Walmart store, causing me to take an unexpected detour. 

Scanning my items I listened (not by choice mind you, she was complaining quite loudly) as she whined about how rude it had been of that woman to ask her and her friends to move.  Friends that apparently, she hadn’t seen in years, and so they’d felt vindicated to hold a class reunion right there in the freezer section.

Of course, everyone knows that misery loves company, and so that Walmart cashier started giving misery the company that she wanted by agreeing that people were rude.

With a seal of approval on her complaining behavior, and the green light for feeling so disrespected because of someone’s audacity to ask her to move, that woman and cashier started sharing war stories of their dealings with rude customers, and people in general.

I was thinking, “hello, I’m right here, and I can hear you. I am a customer you know,” but I continued scanning without saying a word.  As the complaints continued, I could suddenly feel the tug of the Holy Spirit willing me to grab one of the small crosses that I carry in my purse, and to give it to the cashier. 

Part of me wanted to tell them both to stop complaining because it was wearing on my every last nerve, but instead, I did as I was moved by the Holy Spirit to do, and fished one of those crosses from the bottom of my purse.  Crosses that I kept for moments such as this, and with that small wooden cross in my hand, I took a few steps toward the cashier and said, “what they need is Jesus,” and handed her the cross. 

Taking the cross, she said, “yes, they need Jesus,” and then continued complaining with that unhappy road blocker. 

Finished with ringing out and bagging my groceries, I dug in my purse, and took out another cross, and walked over to the woman who’d started the whole complaint fest, and handed her the cross, saying, “here, I thought you could use this.”

“I sure could,” she spoke loudly, assuming I’d given it to her as some sort of moral support, and thinking that I agreed with her off putting behavior somehow.  As she took that cross in her hand, I couldn’t help, but notice that she had a cross of her own, and it was hanging on a chain around her neck.

¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Colossians 3:12)

The thought did enter my mind to ask that cross-wearing woman if she knew the meaning behind that symbol dangling from her neck, but thought better of it when the Holy Spirit breezed by saying, “don’t do it Cheryl,” and so I remained silent, and told her that I hoped that the rest of her day would go better.

As Christians we need to be ever vigilante of our behavior, and stop mistaking ourselves as representatives of Christ simply because we wear a cross around our neck.  Our actions, really do speak much louder than words.

¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

As I walked away from that unaware woman, I silently thanked God for somehow rerouting me back to the very roadblock that I’d attempted to detour earlier in the frozen section, and for helping me to still get out of that Walmart in record breaking time…