Philippians 2:4 (NIV)
Not looking to your own interests but each of you to the
interests of the others.
Johnny was in search of a mission. Johnny works at a
grocery store. One day he went to a training event led by a speaker named
Barbara Glanz. She was talking to three thousand frontline workers for a
supermarket chain-truck drivers, cashiers, and stockers.
Barbara was speaking on how people can make a difference.
She described how every interaction with another person is a chance to create a
memory, to bless someone's life. She talked about how important it is to look
for those moments. She placed on the walls, as she always does when she speaks,
posters with inspiring sayings. She told some stories and then went home, but
she left her phone number behind. She invited the people at the conference to
give her a call if they wanted to talk more about something she said.
About a month later, Barbara received a call from one of
the people at that session, a nineteen-year-old bagger named Johnny. Johnny proudly
informed her that he had Down syndrome, and then he told her his story.
"Barbara, I liked what you talked about. But I
didn't think I could do anything special for our customers. After all, I'm just
a bagger." Then he had an idea: he decided that every night when he came
home from work, he would find a "thought for the day" for his next
shift. It would be something positive, some reminder of how good it was to be
alive, or how much people matter, or how many gifts we are surrounded by. If he
couldn't find one, he would make one up.
Every night his dad would help him enter the saying six
times on a page on the computer; then Johnny would print fifty pages. He would take
out a pair of scissors and carefully cut three hundred copies and sign every
one.
Johnny put the stack of pages next to him while he
worked. Each time he finished bagging someone's groceries, he would put his
saying on top of the last bag. Then he would stop what he was doing, look the
person straight in the eye, and say, "I've put a great saying in your bag.
I hope it helps you have a good day. Thanks for coming here."
A month later, the store manager called Barbara.
"Barbara, you won't believe what's happened here. I was making my rounds,
and when I got up to the cashiers, the line at Johnny's checkout was three
times longer than anyone else's. It went all the way down the frozen food
aisle."
The manager got on the loudspeaker to get more checkout
lines open, but he couldn't get any of the customers to move. They said,
"That's okay. We'll wait. We want to be in Johnny's line." One woman
came up to him and grabbed his hand, saying, "I used to shop in your store
once a week. Now I come in every time I go by-I want to get Johnny's thought
for the day." Johnny is doing more than filling bags with groceries; he is
filling lives with hope.
There is a reason Johnny's lines are three times longer
than anyone else's. Our souls need to be fed, just as our bodies do. Bodies are
fed by protein and carbs; souls are fed by words.
What people need from us the most is not more
information. They just need words that will feed their souls. Sometimes words
as simple as "thank you" or "I hope you have a really good
day" can feed a soul.
Of course, what makes the words on the paper mean so much
is who they come from. Words alone can come from a fortune cookie.
When people get them from Johnny, they are reminded of
the beauty of one person forgetting his own limitations and seeking to make his
life a blessing to someone else. Whatever burdens Johnny carries make his gift
that much brighter.
Know who the most important person in the store is?
Johnny the bagger.
A few months later, the manager called Barbara once again
to tell her Johnny was transforming the whole store. He told her that when the
floral department had a broken flower or unused corsage, they used to throw it
away. Now they go out in the aisles, find an elderly woman or a little girl,
and pin it on her. The butchers started putting ribbons on the cuts of meat
they wrap up for customers. The people who make their shopping carts are trying
to make carts with wheels that actually work.
And all the people of the grocery store will be blessed
through Johnny. If it can happen in a grocery store, it can happen anywhere.
By the way, do you know who the most important person in
your family, your neighborhood, and your workplace is? You.
You can be a Johnny the bagger. What Johnny does isn't
slick, complicated, or calculated. He is just a bagger expressing his heart.
You can help make that happen wherever you are.
What can you do today to show you care?
Dear Lord, open our eyes so that we can see what we can
do to lift the spirits of someone today. Help us be the most important person
in someones life today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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