The self-service checkout wasn’t working. It kept asking me to take my items off the belt and rescan them. Each effort was met with the same command, so finally I put my items back in the cart and headed for another checkout.         

“You can’t do that,” a clerk said coming over.         

“Yes I can,” I said continuing on my way.         

“No, you’ve starting scanning at this station and you have to finish here.”         

I turned and smiled. At least I meant to smile. I hope it was a smile and not a grimace.         

“No, I don’t. The store’s malfunctioning equipment isn’t my responsibility.” And I checked out at a different station. I’m pretty sure she glared at me the whole time.

We need to be supportive to people’s problems when we can. If we can actually help, that’s a good thing. But there are times when people want to drag us into something that’s not our responsibility. Or they want us to follow protocols that are not moral imperatives, just their made-up rules. Walk on!

Prayer: Lord, without being harsh or unduly rude, show me how to walk away from some situations.

Copyright 2011 Michael Sanders