"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body."
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
As fast as Christmas shopping & the magical way that the decorated stores along with the sounds of Christmas music piped throughout them can get you into the "It's A Wonderful Life" Christmas mood… the return process & polices of some stores, a few days after, can get you to shout "Bah Humbug" just as fast.
I found myself yesterday in the fine hustle & bustle of the glorious after Christmas return crowd. Standing in the cattle slaughter line, I finally made it to the return desk, also known as the "Customer Service Desk", which should be changed to the "We Hate You For Trying To Return An Item At Our Store, So We Will Try Our Hardest To Make You Never Want To Do It Again Desk". The nice lady behind the desk told me that I could do one of two things, seeing how I was receipt challenged…1) Find an item in the store for the exact same price, not a penny more or less. Or 2) Receive a gift card for their store that was $18 less than what was on the sticker price. Who came up with this concept? You can search our store for something that is exactly the same price or you can have a cute little card to tote around while you search our store for something $18 less.
I looked around the store & couldn't find anything to swap-out with it…but I did find out that we had a receipt for this gift. So I took back the gift planning on returning it later with the receipt so that I could retrieve the money to shop elsewhere. The funny thing was that the receipt showed that the item was bought at a discount & was actually $36 dollars less than the item was priced to begin with…AAAAUUUGGGGHHH!!!
Well, during all of that I got to thinking about why I was returning the gift in the first place. It wasn't because I didn't like it or that I didn't love the one who gave it to me. It wasn't even broken or anything. It was because I couldn't find a use for it. I wondered if God ever felt like He should have kept his receipt on me. Are there times when He doesn't find me useful? Are their times that I allow myself to become useless to Him. It's not that He doesn't like me, heck, He loves me, and He wants me to be useful. He wants all of His children to be useful. But when we allow sin to control our lives we can become unusable.
God tells us in 1Corinthians 6 that we were bought at a price, Jesus paid that price. He purchased us as His on & when we accept that, He throws away the receipt, He never plans on returning you, but He does plan on using you, in great & wonderful ways. He says that His plans for you are not to harm you, but to prosper you (Jeremiah 29:11).
God wants you to do well, He wants you to affect other people's lives, He wants you & me to be useful. Be a useful purchase…for the greatest Purchaser.
I found myself yesterday in the fine hustle & bustle of the glorious after Christmas return crowd. Standing in the cattle slaughter line, I finally made it to the return desk, also known as the "Customer Service Desk", which should be changed to the "We Hate You For Trying To Return An Item At Our Store, So We Will Try Our Hardest To Make You Never Want To Do It Again Desk". The nice lady behind the desk told me that I could do one of two things, seeing how I was receipt challenged…1) Find an item in the store for the exact same price, not a penny more or less. Or 2) Receive a gift card for their store that was $18 less than what was on the sticker price. Who came up with this concept? You can search our store for something that is exactly the same price or you can have a cute little card to tote around while you search our store for something $18 less.
I looked around the store & couldn't find anything to swap-out with it…but I did find out that we had a receipt for this gift. So I took back the gift planning on returning it later with the receipt so that I could retrieve the money to shop elsewhere. The funny thing was that the receipt showed that the item was bought at a discount & was actually $36 dollars less than the item was priced to begin with…AAAAUUUGGGGHHH!!!
Well, during all of that I got to thinking about why I was returning the gift in the first place. It wasn't because I didn't like it or that I didn't love the one who gave it to me. It wasn't even broken or anything. It was because I couldn't find a use for it. I wondered if God ever felt like He should have kept his receipt on me. Are there times when He doesn't find me useful? Are their times that I allow myself to become useless to Him. It's not that He doesn't like me, heck, He loves me, and He wants me to be useful. He wants all of His children to be useful. But when we allow sin to control our lives we can become unusable.
God tells us in 1Corinthians 6 that we were bought at a price, Jesus paid that price. He purchased us as His on & when we accept that, He throws away the receipt, He never plans on returning you, but He does plan on using you, in great & wonderful ways. He says that His plans for you are not to harm you, but to prosper you (Jeremiah 29:11).
God wants you to do well, He wants you to affect other people's lives, He wants you & me to be useful. Be a useful purchase…for the greatest Purchaser.
Vern
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