Chuck and Humility
If you spell Chuck Norris in Scrabble, you win… Forever.
“I’m too good for this job. I was meant to bear my workload in my mind not over my shoulders. But I kept my head up. The school thing was a bump in the road, but I landed on my feet and got a job quickly even if it is a job that’s ‘below’ me.” These are the type of thoughts that were going through my head when I started working at the store. My future, as I saw it, was no longer an option. And even in the midst of a huge failure, I was still very proud. And I took that pride with me everywhere I went. But then things like this started to happen.
Them: “How is school going?”
Me: “I got kicked out”
*puzzled look*
Them: “Ha, good one. Like that would happen. So schools good?”
Me: “No I actually got kicked out. I don’t go to [College Name] anymore.”
*Smiles gone and the conversation ends*
Over and over again I had this interaction. Each time it broke me. Having to re-experience the failure, the disappointment, and the sadness connected with it until after a while there was nothing left. At that point I was a zombie, just going through the motions.
But Chuck, he was a great worker. He was knowledgeable not just about the products but how to use them. He would give tips to help with the project or go over gotchas so the customers weren’t caught by surprise. In fact, the longer I worked with him, the longer I wondered why he was working at this store. He could have been a general contractor or something similar with the skill-set he possessed. He was better than this job too.
When we worked together, Chuck would share stories with me about his family. His wife and kids, things he did in his off time. He even invited me to his house for breakfast one day. He would share with me stories about he and his wife, or lessons he had taught(or tried to teach) to his kids, and that’s when I saw it. Working in the lumber department, wasn’t Chuck’s job, being a husband and father was. Sure he would be at that store a lot over a week, but it was the moments he shared with his family that really counted. He had ‘work’ to do, but that work just allowed him to support his family, and with a view like that how can your perception stay the same.
I realized that I too had a purpose, and I’m not too good for any work that will help me get to, or accomplish, my purpose. I had a new view on the work I was doing. If chuck can be more educated and experienced than the typical worker at the store, I can as well. Its an opportunity to serve not be a slave, it developing me not defining me, it’s the removal of prideful desires and replacement of God given purpose.
To say that my time with Chuck was humbling is an understatement. God used this time to completely destroy who I thought I was, and point my heart towards him.