I went to blow dry my hair because it's like -20 with wind chill outside here, and when I came back probably 20 minutes later, this lady was sitting on a bench a little past the one where I had left my stuff, waiting. As I was packing my bag she came over to me and asked, "Is all this stuff yours?" and I smiled and said, "Yes."
Her response was startling. "Don't do that again," she said harshly. Caught somewhat off-guard, I apologized politely and went back to packing. Really, my stuff didn't hinder her access to her locker at all. Then she turned to her own empty locker and opened it and shut it again to make a point. You see, she already had all her stuff in her hands; but after doing this, she turned back to me and said, "I didn't mean to get mad, but this was my locker and I couldn't get to it with all your stuff there."
Again I replied, "I'm sorry." But I added, "There were two other women here before me that took over most of the bench so I just had to fit my stuff in around theirs. I didn't mean to be in anyone's way." The lady said, "Ok," and gave me a look of disgust before turning to walk away.
Just as she was leaving I had the urge to give her a little piece of my mind. Something like, "You know, it's not going to do any good for you to just tell me not to do it again. I'm gonna keep putting my stuff on this bench just like everyone else does. But if you were to ask me politely to use less space or to allow you some room, I would gladly do so. But yelling at me only makes me angry with you and that causes me to be more stubborn than I am anyway."
BUT I didn't say any of that. I let her walk away and let some of the other women stare at me. And instead of saying all of those unnecessary things, I allowed myself to cool down and evaluate the situation, and later - on my drive home - I lifted that lady in prayer. You see, I have no idea what she might be going through in life. Maybe she just needed to feel like she had some control over a situation because she feels as if she has lost control of everything else. Perhaps she needed to see a young person respond in a decent way to help her realize that we aren't all as bad as a lot of people make us out to be. And really, maybe she just needed to see the love of God. Whatever her reason was for picking me out of the crowd of women in the locker room, it doesn't matter. What matters is that I didn't allow it to get to me and instead hopefully opened a door for God to work in her life by praying for her.
No, that lady isn't going to stop me from putting my stuff on the bench in the locker room, but I will be more conscientious about how much of the bench I take up. And next time my stubborn self wants to give an older adult a piece of my mind, I will remember this situation and think about whether what I am going to say is really important enough to show disrespect to someone older than me, even if they are disrespecting me first.
So, besides burning off a good number of calories and getting to do something I love, I got to meet a wonderful lady in the locker room who probably has no idea what's gonna hit her when God begins to work in her life.
