So, at work Saturday night, I saw a girl (probably 12-15ish) ask me if we had a digital camera that was waterproof and/or could work underwater. I showed her the one that we had, and she didn’t care much for it because of the price tag. She came back and forth a few times to look at it, and at one point explained why she wanted it: she goes to youth group, and they would sometimes go to water parks and ski trips and such, so she needed a digital camera that could deal with the water. A couple things came to my mind and sort of lead to me zoning out while she was talking.
- Why isn’t she witnessing to me? (Probably because she isn’t genuinely born again, or at best has a low view of God and the Bible.)
- Do her parents and youth pastor point her to the Word? (Doubtful at best, if her youth pastor sends them on ski trips and water parks to have fun instead of sharing the gospel.)
I excused myself to go back to the counter. Along the way, I heard her say to her friend, in a perfect imitation of a Valley Girl: “I deserve this camera.”
If I could have made a sound effect at that moment, it would approximately have been the sccrrreeeecccchhhhhhh of a car’s brakes going from 60 to 0 in .001 seconds.
Excuse me?! You deserve this camera?!?!
I looked around, close to saying something. With a recession though, I can’t get fired, and preaching to a customer while on the clock certainly would be grounds for termination. One or two associates were in listening distance, and a customer was at one of our kiosks making an order.
Drat!
So what would I have said? In as pleasant and tender a voice as possible (while internally I was having a stroke and growing an ulcer that filled half my stomach because of thinking about the kind of family and church that would let a girl think this sort of nonsense):
Um, young lady? You said you were in youth group, yes? Have you read Romans 1 through 3 recently? I recommend you do. Paul wrote it specifically to show you and I that we do not deserve anything from God, except for God’s wrath and justice, because of how much and how often that we have sinned against Him. I am putting my job on the line for telling you this, so I do hope to take this stuff seriously. Thank you for listening to me, and I do hope you have a good evening.
But no, I chickened out. Maybe it’s wise to pick my battles, but it was the closest I think I’d ever come to out-and-out preaching to a customer. For reference, here are a few passages:
Romans 1:28-2:11:
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man–you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself–that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.
Romans 3:10-18:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
