Doing the Right Thing . . .

There are so many times when doing the right thing is a choice, instead of the automatic that it should be.  As someone who absolutely loves the convenience of grocery pickups, I will admit that I haven’t always “automatically” did the right thing, especially when someone else’s groceries got mixed in with mine.  After all, the whole purpose of me doing grocery pickups is to avoid going inside the store. 

For me, not having to fight against mother nature, or worrying about fixing my hair, supersedes any guilt I may try conjuring up when watching someone else fighting gusts of wind while loading my groceries.  Besides, it’s quite freeing not feeling the need to look nice (wear make-up or fix my hair properly) while waiting in my car.  “Free at last! Free at last” . . . may not have been words Martin Luther King intended for that particular scenario, but it certainly is liberating to avoid those check-out lines and to not care about how I look when picking up groceries.             

Regardless of all those amazing perks of grocery pick up, it still has its flaws.  There have been times when someone else’s items have inadvertently ended up with my order, which of course, I never notice until I’m in the comfort of my home, unpacking my groceries.     

From past experiences, I am fully aware that most store policies, cannot restock perishable items, and therefore, those things are tossed in the trash.  However, when it comes to those non-perishable items, that isn’t always the case.  It is then I often find myself asking, what is the right thing to do?  After all, the whole purpose of grocery pick up is not having to go inside the store, at least for me that’s the case.  As far as I’m concerned, I’ve put my time in fighting crowds, willing myself to walk past the cinnamon powdered donuts (that is when I can find them) or fight the urge to go rogue and purchase items that are not on my list.  No thank you, I prefer grocery pick up.  So, is it wrong of me to keep an item that isn’t mine to keep, especially when it wasn’t me who’d placed someone else’s stuff with my groceries.        

I remember well the first time I spied an out of place grocery item with my order.  First, I hurriedly checked my digital receipt to make certain that I hadn’t been charged for the unwanted item, and then I did a celebratory dance, thinking I’d gotten something for free.  Yay me. However, the dance ended with me feeling convicted.  Cue the Holy Spirit.  I quickly felt the pang of knowing that I had to do the right thing, even though it was going to be an inconvenience for me to do so. After all, the store was nearly thirty minutes from where I lived.  Besides, I dreaded the thought of having to actually go inside a busy store to fix someone else’s mistake.  It was somewhere along that line of thinking, when I decided to call the store, before doing anything rash like fixing my hair, or driving thirty minutes to return something that would probably end up in the trash. 

I fought the urge to hang up the phone after several rings, but held firm to doing the right thing, only to have the person on the other end of the phone tell me to keep the items.  Bingo! Doing the right thing had yielded me two unexpected containers of Bob Evans mashed potatoes, and if you haven’t had those mashed potatoes, I am here to tell you, it was a big deal that they’d inadvertently made their way into my bags. 

Inasmuch as I always try to do the right thing (I have returned silver dollars when a clerk or two has mistakenly given them to me in place of a quarter), I still don’t always do the correct thing.  Don’t get me wrong, it feels amazing to do what is right, especially when I am praised for my truthfulness. Quite honestly though, it always baffles me when people are shocked by my honesty in returning something that got placed in my bag, or whenever I’ve been given the wrong change.  Is honesty really such a rarity that people are surprised when someone does something noble like returning a silver dollar?  Okay, so maybe noble isn’t the right word, but why are people so amazed when someone is honest?  During those times, I usually tell people that God is watching, and that being truthful is one of His requirements.  Now before you want to nominate me for sainthood, I need to tell you that I don’t always do the right thing. 

As a prime member at a local wholesale store, I often find myself having to order things for delivery when the store doesn’t have them in stock.  I’ve normally never had any issues with the delivery process. However, once during a very bad winter, my three-day delivery date was quickly turning into two weeks.  I finally called the online number, to complain about my overdue delivery.  With sincere apologies offered, I was told that they would reorder my items.  Within two days, not only did my replacement order come, but my original one as well, which meant I had two of everything, but had only been charged for one of everything. 

Everyone kept telling me that I should keep the items and giving me various reasons why I should do so.  It was the store’s mistake . . . the store wouldn’t even notice the cost of those items being missing . . . it would cost them more to pick up the items than for me to keep them . . .  

I considered those well-meaning suggestions, adding one of my own . . . I shouldn’t have to go out of my way to return those items to the store.  For days I kept them, before finally deciding to call the online number, telling them what had occurred.  I was given the choice to donate the items, or if I preferred, I could return them to my local store. The choice was mine, and I thought about that choice for several days.   Mainly because two of the items could be purchased online only, which meant my local store didn’t carry them in stock.  I thought long and hard on what would happen to those items should I take them to my local store. 

Despite the inconvenience I knew it would be for me to drive to the store to return the items, that is what I finally made the decision to do.  However, I decided I wasn’t going out of my way to do that, coming to the conclusion that I would return the items the next time I was in the area of that store.  Unfortunately, I somehow always managed to forget to do that. With the best of intentions, and some of the perishable items getting closer to their expiration date, I finally decided to donate those items to my nephew’s wrestling team.  Now, what to do with those two big bottles of scent boosters that I could certainly use, and were not available in the store?  Obviously, they couldn’t be restocked on the shelves, and who would I donate them to? Did homeless shelters even use scent boosters? 

Week after week, I pondered what to do, but in the end, I decided to keep them for myself.  Did I do the right thing?   After all, I wasn’t specifically told that I had to return them. Oh, I can run it through my mind as many times as I want, trying to decide whether I’d been honest in my choice, but the truth of it is, I really didn’t do the right thing.  I guess you could say I was partially honest.  So, is there ever a time when doing the right thing isn’t necessary?

For several weeks, my husband and I drove past a very large plastic object that appeared to be either a large tarp, or a deflated swimming pool, left lying on the side of the road.  Each time I spied that out of the place item, I would comment to my husband that I wish someone would clean up their trash.  Because my husband and I often gathered trash thrown out by people traveling on our county road, I had hoped that others would do the same. Yet, no one claimed it, and because it wasn’t on my own road, I felt that it really wasn’t our problem.  I decided to do my best not to look at it, each time that I drove past.  Out of site out of mind, I reasoned, and it wasn’t long before I forgot about it all together.  That was until I exited my garage and saw a large (what appeared to be a blue tarp) cascading over the side of my husband’s hauling trailer. Not thinking much of it, I started my morning walk.  Nearing my third or so lap, my husband pulled out of the garage in his truck and pointed to the blue object.

“Did you see it?” he asked.

“Yes, I noticed it as soon as I came outside,” I answered before suddenly realizing what that big blue object was . . .

My amazing husband had taken his truck and retrieved (what I now learned was a deflated swimming pool) from the side of the road.  He had decided to do what no one else was doing. He could have reasoned with himself that it wasn’t his problem and he hadn’t been the one who’d dumped it along the road, but instead, he decided to do something about it.

Too many times, we as people, especially as Christians, tend to make excuses when it comes to knowing what the right thing to do actually is.  In reality, the Holy Spirit is there to remind us what that right thing is.

John 14:26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things. . .

In Luke10:25-37, Jesus gives us the parable of a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho who was attacked and left half dead. Both a Priest and a Levite passed him by, showing no compassion for the man. It was a Samaritan who does what the Priest and Levite refused to do, but given their position in life, should have done.  Instead, it was the one most likely expected to help that had stepped up and did the right thing.

It’s proof positive that we all have it within us to do just that, whether we consider ourselves to be Christians or not.  For certain, doing the right thing should never be a choice, it should be an automatic.  Thankfully, should we do the wrong thing, there is an amazing God who will forgive us.  After all, He doesn’t exemplify what we do wrong.  Instead, He sees within us, the potential to do what is right.

So, if you see a need, don’t be like the Priest or the Levite.  Instead, be like my husband and stop along the road, get your hands dirty, and do the right thing, even if it means going out of your way to do so.  You no doubt will brighten someone’s day, and who knows, you might find yourself with two big containers of Bob Evan’s mashed potatoes.  Either way, it will well be worth it!