I met this random lady out walking yesterday and we had a brief conversation.
“What do you do for work?”
“I work at T–s ‘R Us [store name edited for anonymity]” she said.
“Well thanks for what you do for kids,” I responded.
“I do accounting there. But when I’m all done each day I go out and see the kids. I love our kids!”
Random accounting lady walks two miles each day on a path that is literally up hill each way, to catch a bus to work. At age 60-ish, she just recently moved back to town after experiencing a horrific family tragedy. She now lives with her son.
“I’ve been working again for seven months now and next month I’m moving out into a place of my own.”
“Well, you’re growing up!” I chuckled. (Sigh. Always the inappropriate smart aleck.)
She laughed (I think).
Now I’m not sure what an accountant does, especially an accountant for a toy store. Anything math-related overwhelms me — I barely passed freshman algebra and what little success I had was thanks to a cute tutor. Maybe random accounting lady counts Monopoly money at the toy store.
The point is, random accounting lady’s attitude. She has a math job for goodness sake! But her response is loving kids. The guy who cleans the gym I go to is the same way. I’m sure he makes little-to-nothing and yet he’s always happy. I’m sure it’s a struggle for him to make enough money to support his wife and baby boy but instead gym cleaning man has an attitude to die for.
To die for. Maybe one of the reasons Jesus came, and lived, and died for, was so that I could have hope, and joy, and look beyond myself on any given day. It’s nearly Christmas. Life’s not so bad.
“The humble will see their God at work and be glad.” Psalm 69:32
Calvin G. Roso © December 2013
Calvin Roso | Stories 