Submit
Since August I have been working in a local coffeeshop, and it’s been really difficult. I don’t want be unprofessional by saying negative things about this job, but I do want to share what God has been teaching me through it.
My boss is not a kind person. He doesn’t generally make eye contact or speak to me unless it’s absolutely necessary. I’m not sure if it’s a cultural thing or not, but it feels disrespectful. No matter what I make, it’s not usually good enough; the salads are too small and then too big. I don’t really know what size to make the salad or the side of chips or the scones… He does not use ‘please’ or ‘thank you’. He turns his back and walks off when I’m talking to him. I come home from work crying much more than I would prefer. About a month ago, I figured out that I hate him. And I also realized that I cannot reconcile that to my faith.
I don’t want to be an angry and hateful person. I don’t want to keep up the habit of flipping him off every time he walks away. I don’t want my speaking patterns to be continually short and snippy.
In a Bible study a few days later, we were reading through the book of Genesis. In chapter 16 we read the story of Hagar, who ran away because she was treated unfairly by her boss. When the angel appears to her, we’d expect that he would do something or instruct her in some way that brings justice to her situation. But the first thing he says to her is “Return and submit to authority.”
As people, and I think especially as Americans, we don’t like to hear that. We grew up being taught that our rights are important and worth fighting for. That when we are treated unjustly, we have our God-given right to stand up for ourselves. But how often does God call us to something else? ”I know it’s unfair. I know it hurts. Return and submit.”
The thing is, my boss doesn’t know Jesus. And if I’m the only glimpse he gets, it probably isn’t a good thing if I’m flipping him off every time he leaves the kitchen. So I started trying to submit. I set reminders on my phone to remind myself to pray for him. I would do what he’d ask me to do with a cheerful (yet purposeful—I still want to train him to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’) “You’re welcome.” I’d say “Good morning” every morning, even though it was ignored. I would deep clean the kitchen every other week, sometimes including scrubbing the floor on hands and knees. I’d make sure everything was clean, restocked, and ready for the evening shift when he was the only one working. I didn’t want to. Sometimes I didn’t want to refill ingredients just so that he would be flustered when he ran out in the middle of making someone’s dinner. But that’s not how Jesus treated people, and I needed to try to show him Jesus.
Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately (I’m not sure yet), I was recently let go from that job. So now the challenge is to try to act Christlike in dealing with the aftermath of that. I’m not sure what that looks like yet, but I know that I want to be able to look back on this and see that I acted in a way that showed integrity, strength, and maturity.
