Thursday, I went to a pharmacy to get my COVID booster. It was apparently the magic hour to do so because, in the time that I waited for my paperwork to get processed, 20 more people came to stand in line for something.
There were many workers there, and the need simply was very great. Prescriptions, flu shots, etc. – the requests varied, you could tell the staff were all diligently working to meet everyone’s needs, but the situation overall required a bit of patience.
When I went into the room for the shot, the employee apologized for my 30-minute wait. I explained that it wasn’t a big deal; clearly, their dockets were full. Then, we began talking, and she shared that most days, they don’t have time for lunch; they are working 2 – 3 hours longer than they are supposed to, yet they still cannot fill the needs at hand.
“We simply aren’t equipped for this. And on top of that, people are just so angry. They blame us for things that are way beyond our control.”
I explained that I am a pastor, and right or wrong, I sometimes hear why folks are angry (and be the lucky winner to be on the receiving end).
She explained that a customer visited their store a few days prior, determined to pick up a prescription. Unfortunately, it wasn’t there because the customer had never used that store before. They explained that, but the customer was adamant that the prescription was there. This became quite a debate (in the drive-thru), and the customer finally said, “I’m not leaving here until you give me my medicine. You can’t do anything to me, and you cannot make me leave. What’s the worst that can happen? I have some people angry at me?”
“Ma’am, the worst that can happen is that we will call the police. And then you’ll have to move, or they will assist you in moving, and you’ll move under arrest.”
After some yelling, the lady stormed off.
Today one of the leadership blogs that I read was entitled “How to Unite a Divided People: Leading in an Angry Era.”
We are just angry right now . . . I’d hoped a message series on prayer and connecting to God would offer us some different things to think about and feel other than our frustration and anger.
No doubt you’ll have some errands to run this weekend.
Do them kindly . . . remember, everyone is dealing with their own stuff, and anger never gets us anywhere productive. In fact, what good could happen in our society and world if we took our anger and channeled it into peace? So maybe we give that a shot.
