Mercy Drops 'Round Us | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Mercy Drops 'Round Us | Previous Challenge Entry
By Veronica Winley
12/03/14
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Motivational speakers often make me itch, especially when they attempt to work on areas in which I don’t want or need to be motivated. I twist, turn, and clock watch throughout their presentation, longing for lunchtime…or at least a break.

At a mandatory conference I attended for managers, the speaker stated that employees follow the lead of the supervisor. With cheerleader enthusiasm, she said “Folks, when you come to work grumpy or gloomy, your staff will follow suit.” She encouraged us to come in smiling and cheerful, regardless of how we actually feel at the time. Her suggestion? “If you don’t feel it, fake it.” Just listening to her made me cranky. I could only imagine a day of full of fake smiling.

Well, the Monday morning following the conference dawned cold, gray and drizzly, my least favorite kind of weather. Either rain or don’t rain but please don’t mist. Farmers, fauna and flora need a good, hard (but brief) drenching.

But I digress.

One of my staff is frequently downcast, whatever the weather. Her life is full of woes, which she willingly shares, and only the distant lure of retirement and a pension keep her trudging to work. Talking with her is often like having a conversation with Winnie the Pooh’s morose friend, Eeyore.

Although she does not attend church, she says her radio remains tuned to a Christian station. I want to be a sympathetic listener, because her life story is really a sad one, marked with much sickness and tragedy. However, when she begins a tirade about the need to avoid germs and how working with the public is bad for your health, I confess to some impatience. Playful reassurance that library users must be cleaner than the general public is usually met with a snort of disbelief.

Around noon on this particular Monday, she told me that two male patrons said the men’s room “needs attention;” which is saying euphemistically, it’s gross, disgusting and should be bombed with disinfectant. Her suggestion was “Put an ‘Out of Order’ sign on the door until the custodian returns the next day.” While this was very tempting, I thought of the children, the elderly and anyone else who just had to “go” and I donned my bright yellow rubber gloves. I knew better than to ask her to attend to it.

Unfortunately, what should have been the end of it was not. This staff person followed me around, with much sighing and head shaking, concerned about the possibility (almost certainty) of my getting sick and passing on whatever sickness I caught. Lord please help, I cried out silently. Drizzling outside and grizzling inside. Finally I called her into my office.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Why are you still grousing about the bathroom?” After all, I thought, you didn’t have to clean it. I’ll admit there was no accompanying smile, genuine or fake. She looked down and mumbled something to her feet.

“Excuse me?” Annoyance tinged my voice.

Looking up, she murmured, “I can’t afford to get sick.” I stared into her eyes for a moment and to my dismay, I saw tears forming.

Shame flooded me as well as an indescribable compassion. Besides being in and out of hospitals, she had lost her husband and a daughter and now lived alone. I was looking into a face filled with sadness, loneliness, loss and fear. Impulsively I touched her arm and against all policies and rules about professional and politically correct behavior, I asked gently “May I pray with you?” She grabbed my hand and nodded yes.

It was the assurance found in John 14:27 that immediately came to my mind. I prayed with her that it would become a reality in her life and that she would come to know the One whose promises are sure. Her tears started to fall and she thanked me as she turned to leave.

I looked out the office window, as I pondered what had just happened. There was no sudden burst of sunshine; it was still misty and gray outside. However for some inexplicable reason, the word “dew” popped into my head. In scripture, it symbolizes God’s blessing, his covering, his favor. My prayer now is that when I go to work, let me offer those who may be spiritually parched and gasping, not a fake smile or even a “positive” attitude, but Isaac’s blessing. “May God give you the dew - the refreshing droplets - of heaven.”

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