Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Colossians 3:17 (NASB)
Yesterday I got asked an interesting question. “Chow, why would I want to work at Macys if you hate it so much”. My answer was that I don’t hate my job, in fact I am blessed by it considering the economy that we are in. Rather I would like to be doing what I am called to do, be a pastor or something along those lines. Instead I am talking about Pre-Sales, Macys credit applications, and Use You Card events.
In an interesting note, today my boss comes at all of us with a stack of statistics. Apparently Macys keeps track of everything we do from the amount of customers that use Macys cards to the breakdown of each purchase. For example of the 111 people that I helped last week 31% of them used a Macys Card and 2.7 of them applied for an account (based upon 40 hour week). Great and exciting. As he was going through all the numbers it began to dawn on me. I am not the best in our department. GASP! For me it was like a shot in the heart. How could I not be the best at something. It was not like I am the worst employee in my department. In fact I am above average, if not ranked high in most of the major statistical categories, but again… I was not the best. For the rest of the afternoon I mulled over it. In fact I can honestly say I was jealous of my co-worker who was even better than me. After taking a few to ponder it over, I wondered why it mattered to me so much. When I leave for the day the last thing on my mind is my Items Per Transaction score. My career goal is not to be the Macys CEO in fact I cannot wait to quit. Then why does it bother me so?
It is my humanity and drive that makes me want to be the best that I do. Or is it something else. Colossians describes that every action and deed that I do must point to Jesus. It would be far to easy to sit around and not do my best at this job, even when I really do not care about it. I could fall asleep in the fitting room and it would take awhile for anyone to notice or simply wander around the store. With the amount of traffic and managers being so low it would not be too difficult to simply slip through the cracks. Then there is that integrity thing and the fact my coworkers are starting to ask about what is it about me that is different. Why do I care when we get paid so little? Why am I driven in spite of the fact it is a job with mindless repetition?
I am driven because everything I do points to Jesus. While at times it may not be overt, sooner or later everything comes to light. I would hate to be the person that is labeled a Christian and a slacker. If my work ethic was to cast God in a bad light, I might as well not be one at all.
