What Does That Say?

With every new job comes new skills and experiences. For my summer job, the draft board assigned me to Grounds for two hours in the morning and the Weimart for the rest of the day. A week after getting out of school, I reported for duty and began learning the ropes.

There is always a challenge involved in starting a new job. Grounds work is a bit more self-explanatory, but creating invoices, stapling the right papers together, and knowing just what to say to an upset customer who's order I had nothing to do with was a bit trickier. But after a couple weeks of shipping orders, cashiering, and talking on the phone with long-winded customers I felt reasonably settled in.

I survived inventory and store work finally started becoming routine. One day I set to work on filling a row of bulk containers. Setting the half-empty jar of baking powder on the counter I cast my glance about the room searching for the refill. Ah, there's a sack with the brand name EnerG. I unhurriedly scooped the white powder into the container while I remembered the unpleasant sour taste that the EnerG baking powder had imparted to a batch of waffles. Closing the lid on the very full jar, I turned to seal the sack. My gaze rested on the product name just below the brand: Egg Replacer. Oh no! Five pounds of mixed egg replacer and baking powder was now headed for the trash can.

More recently I was getting ready to bag some bulk foods, so I diligently set about preparing the bagging area. One of the store workers keeps a spray bottle with grapeseed extract for disinfectant instead of a chemical cleaner. Grabbing a spray bottle on the counter I carefully scrubbed down the work surface, not noticing the powerful odor rising into the air. I set down the bottle, ready to get to work when I happened to see the label scrawled in red marker. Not again. As I frantically scrubbed the counter with water, my boss walked by and asked, "Did somebody spray the Deer-Away?"

I can take away one good lesson from these two incidents: Always read the labels. There is absolutely nothing that can be lost from double-checking. At the very least it will save me from ruining someone's baking or trying to clean with a rotten egg base deer deterrant. In spiritual matters the same lesson applies. Sometimes what appears to be something good may be a close counterfeit. And maybe the only clue exposing its true identity is written on the label.