What Do You Want?

Good Morning, 

I’d like to share a thought-provoking story I heard just before we left Hawaii. Tony was preaching at the Chinese Baptist Church, and afterwards, we were visiting with the Sunday School teacher. This is the story he told:  

He had gone to a popular electronics shop to buy at TV.  The shopkeeper promised that they would remove any old TV when they delivered the new one.

The new TV was delivered, and when they saw the his pre-21st century monster TV, they tucked and ran, saying there was no way they could wrangle such a monster. After some discussion of the situation with his wife, she reminded him of those newlywed days of poverty when he worked in a call Center.  

"What was your advice on handling upset customers?" she asked.

"Oh," he recalled after a moment, "I was told to ASK the customer what he wanted."

So, he pulled up his socks, as the Aussies say, and went into the store and found the manager.  The conversation went something like this:

"My wife and I bought a TV here. We decided to go with your shop because you promised to remove our old one."

And then the manager’s magic words, "What do you want me to do about it?"

To which our friend replied (hoping he wasn't sounding too absurd), "I want $300 to cover the pain and suffering you have caused me!"

To his amazement,  the manager replied without blinking, “How about $200?”

Everyone was satisfied.  He paid a high schooler and his friends $25 to carry off the old tv, and most importantly, his wife called him a 'real man'.

Moral of the story: all we need to do is SAY what we want.  

I tried this the next day with my cantankerous bank who had frozen my online account because of "suspicious activity".  I was the perpetrator of the suspicious activity because I had tried to wire some money to another bank and apparently they decided I might be a crook.

I did everything I knew how, to reason with them on the phone, but my account remained locked.  The sweet young thing kept telling me I needed to “step into a 'friendly' branch and identify myself”.  I got madder and madder as I explained there was NO FRIENDLY branch (by now I'm shouting) in either Hawaii or Australia. I felt that I wasn't being heard and I couldn't figure out how to get the so the little girl on the other end to understand.

After hearing the SS lesson, I went back to my only resource, the phone.  When a sweet young thing answered, I said something like this, "I need to get something resolved today, and that may involve speaking to a manager". Then, calmly, I explained my problem and geographical challenge.

By keeping my cool, and saying what I needed and moreover, wanted, she seemed to understand, and within about 10 minutes had me back online.  Ironically, her name was Angel.

My only regret was that I forgot to ask for $300 for 'pain and suffering"!

Jesus knows what we want.  He only asks us to TELL HIM!  

There are so many verses in the Bible where he says, "Come to Me".  I'm sure you have some memorized.  "Seek me first" etc....... Good topic for your next Bible study. How many places in the Bible are we told, in the words of the old spiritual, “Have a little talk with Jesus; tell Him all about our sorrows; He will hear our faintest cry; and He will answer by and by.”

This weekend, we are in Los Angeles, catching up with our lovely dorm daughter from Liberia.

Can't thank God enough for giving us all we've ever wanted, often before we have to ask!

Next week we’ll be sending from "Down Under"! Someone commented the other day that Aussies never refer to "Up Over!"  

Marsha