All I wanted was a couple of diet cokes. One of the things that my son and I treat each other to are diet cokes
from McDonalds. We can get them anywhere, but we love the extra bit of carbonation that they seem to put in
these. So, every now and then we will just go through the drive thru and bring home a treat. We both had been
working after dinner and I told him I was going for a couple of large diet cokes. I went through the drive thru
and got the cokes and as I was going home, I decided I was going to get started on mine. I put in the straw, and
I almost spit it out! It was room temperature, no ice, and flatter than a west Texas landscape. So, I turned
around and went through the drive thru again. I explained to the guy taking the money what happened, and he
apologized and said they will throw those away and “give you what you ordered”. I drove up to the next
window and they took back my broken cokes and said “We don’t have any ice” …as they were pouring a bucket
of ice into a huge container. I said, “You have ice right there…couldn’t I have some?” And so, I couldn’t see
what he was doing but I got a couple of cokes with ice…but as I drove away, I looked at them and realized that
these were the same cups with the flat cokes that I’d just handed him. So, I came back and parked and went in,
now for my third attempt to get my two diet cokes with ice. The young lady at the counter apologized and said
she would replace them immediately. She came back to the counter and told me “We don’t have ice” …as the
person behind her is dispensing coke into four other cups. I pointed out that indeed they did have ice…because
it is in the ones that are being filled right now. She just left me and I stood and the shift manager went to the
cash register pulled out the cost of two cokes, held it out to me and said “Sorry”. I realized that my mom’s baby
boy is just not going to get cold diet cokes here tonight. It wasn’t the end of the world. And had they told me
up front that they were having problems, I’d have been willing to just drive through and go home. But they
gave me a defective product hoping I’d just go away. It was irritating and then I realized what was happening.
I realized that I wasn’t dealing with crummy cokes…I was in school. And the lesson for today was…patience!
I need to continue to learn to be a patient follower of this Jesus of the Bible. And God doesn’t give you
patience. He gives you irritating circumstances where you have the opportunity to…be patient. It is a choice we
make. I’m not sure how I scored on the heavenly ranking on this one, but I know that God has and continues to
be patient with me. And that patience is a gift that is a fruit of that Holy Spirit in us. So, when things don’t go
like you expect them to…or even when everything just falls apart, remember that every trial, large or small, is
an opportunity to be shaped more like this Jesus of the Bible. And you never know what God is going to do
next. Because something happened to me less than an hour later…that taught me another lesson…but you’ll
need to wait until tomorrow for that one! So as the Apostle Paul wrote, “Be patient with each other, making
allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.” (Ephesians 4:2)
Here's our Bible verse for today…
Romans 15:5 NLT May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus.
Remember I’m praying for you,
PJ
Here's our Bible verse for today…
Romans 15:5 NLT May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus.
Remember I’m praying for you,
PJ