I’d been grocery shopping long enough that I found myself wrestling a two-ton cart. Why is it you can never tell the cart has a wanky wheel until you’ve loaded it with the first ton of stuff and there’s no turning back? That sucker pulled so hard to the left I’m pretty sure I accidentally circled the store three extra times.
It was grocery rush hour so I hunted to find a checkout lane short enough that I might have a chance to get out of the store before morning. Nothing. But then suddenly, oh glorious day, the checker in the “20 items or less” lane had a break in his line and waved me in. My hero. Fortunately his lane was to my left so my cart pretty much steered itself right in. When he waved me in, it felt like the Red Sea was parting. Spiritual moment, people.
No sooner had I unloaded about a ton and a half out of my cart and onto the belt when a couple of legit “20 items or less” people materialized out of nowhere. They slipped in behind me. Glaring. Angrily. I could feel them counting.
I wanted to smile—awkward smile though it would have been—and say, “Look folks, I know, okay? I know I have more than 20 items. But he waved me in. Who in their right mind would stay in the check-til-dawn line when a cashier gives the wave-in?
I, however, decided against saying anything at all. It seemed ungrateful to throw the checker under the bus. Cart. Whatever. I went with an avoid-all-eye-contact course of action instead. More of a course of inaction, but still.
There was no small amount of animosity in that line. I was pretty sure one lady was Karate-chopping me with her mind. No small amount of fear either. All mine. I might’ve expected road rage out on the highways. But lane rage? In the grocery store? “Shop ‘til you drop.” I’d heard of that too. But “shop ‘til someone drops you”? This was new. And more frightening.
I guess we’re all tempted every now and then to slough off the hero role and take the low road. The Lone Ranger gets shoved over for The Lane Rager. We have to be reminded often that it can happen to any of us. I might be tempted to pass judgment on your average lane rager but I know that deep down I can become one—in a heartbeat.
Every heartbeat has to be “redressed,” as it were. We’re to take off the selfish raging every moment and by the power and inner-working of the Holy Spirit, we’re to put on the love of Christ. We’re told in Colossians 3:12-14, “Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. Above all, put on love – the perfect bond of unity,” (HCSB).
So let’s keep on putting it on. Taking off bitterness, losing fear and wearing the love that Jesus supplies. Through Him we can put on the entire list. A list that in this case, by the way, has less than 20 items.