Today a woman came into Dunn Bros. wearing a really nice light greendown vest - one she either just bought of just stole from the new REI down the road. There was a huge REI tag (about the size of the average notecard) still hanging from the front zipper. I struggled with what to do - do I tell her and risk feeling rude or do I let it go, knowing she'll realize it sooner or later? I wanted to tell her. I did. But I didn't quite know how to say it, so I just let it go.
It's only now that I realize what a hypocrite I am. First of all, I hate it when someone doesn't tell me about the large chunck of food in my teeth or the stain on my shirt or the plethora of other things that I would want to know about so that I could remedy them. But more importantly, it reminded me of how much I hate it when someone doesn't tell me something important.
For instance, Tom and I worked at a church for a year and a half, and every few weeks some new piece of information would be mentioned that was important enough that someone should have told us sooner. Someone should have told us about major events in the history of the church that affected our minsitry or the general demeaner of the church body. Someone should have told us sooner. But instead we found ouf the hard way. I won't get into the details about that, but I only bring that up to demonstrate that sometimes you need to tell someone something sooner, whether it's food on your face or that people expect the Lord's Prayer in every service or the fact that your apartment had a known cockroach problem before you moved in. Someone should have told us sooner. But instead we found out the hard way and we have to deal with the consequences.
It's only now that I realize what a hypocrite I am. First of all, I hate it when someone doesn't tell me about the large chunck of food in my teeth or the stain on my shirt or the plethora of other things that I would want to know about so that I could remedy them. But more importantly, it reminded me of how much I hate it when someone doesn't tell me something important.
For instance, Tom and I worked at a church for a year and a half, and every few weeks some new piece of information would be mentioned that was important enough that someone should have told us sooner. Someone should have told us about major events in the history of the church that affected our minsitry or the general demeaner of the church body. Someone should have told us sooner. But instead we found ouf the hard way. I won't get into the details about that, but I only bring that up to demonstrate that sometimes you need to tell someone something sooner, whether it's food on your face or that people expect the Lord's Prayer in every service or the fact that your apartment had a known cockroach problem before you moved in. Someone should have told us sooner. But instead we found out the hard way and we have to deal with the consequences.
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