I gotta remember to not carry other people's garbage around with me. I woke up early one Sunday morning and decided to grab my family some breakfast from Ihop. I didn't anounce it to them, I just figured I give them a surprise - who doesn't love Ihop? Anyhoo, when I got to the store, I realized that the order somehow got placed at another store, even though the application repeatedly asked for my location. It ended up placing the order at a store 20 minutes away from my house. No big deal. I got a car I enjoy driving, let's go! Head down the road and the highway is a parking lot. No exageration cars were at a dead STOP. I pull off before I get stuck in the muck to try to get around. Police were blocking the exit ramp to get back on, so whatever happened was SERIOUS. I know the city, no big deal. I dart around the unusually heavy traffic on this rainy Sunday morning and finally reach the woodlawn ave Ihop and encounter the nastiest rep I have ever met. I mean she's that one usher who's been on the usher board since the church was built. The one that's so hostile that you want to just go back home to keep from dealing with her poison??? The one that's got that "my shoes too tight and my feet hurt already!" at 8:00 service! THAT sister was at Ihop. As I walked in she was telling a customer who asked for extra ketchup "we ain't got no extra ketchup. We don't carry no ketchup packs!" The way she spoke to that man set him on fire. "Who's next?" She barked my way. "I have a to go order..", I replied. She looked at me and the other gentleman waiting and said "to go orders follow me". So we follow sista “tight shoes” to the back to get our orders. "I need to see your orders!" she growls and I show her the email from my phone. She starts barking again "I can't see that, that's too small!" I smile and say "Oh, my name is Hurley, Curtis Hurley..." And she barks out again, “I need to see that email!” One of the other reps steps in and goes "He just said his name was Curtis!" and steps to the back and grabs my order for me. I smiled, thanked them and went on my way. As I hit the parking lot, the FIRST guy that she angered was sitting his truck just fuming! The fires that she stoked in him were still raging. I get back to the house and I announce that the food is here. Nobody comes down. And ofcourse after all I went through to get the food, I was incensed. I go upstairs and tell my oldest the food is here. He responds with "Oh" but doesn't get up to come down. I tell him "you do what you wanna do, I'm going to eat..." I growl at others and ask if they heard me then and I go back down stairs. I then hear the spirit of God say something to the effect of you've experienced something ugly, "don't take it out on them..." I tried to trudge my way through breakfast as pleasantly as I could, but I had brought that woman's spirit home with me. I can't allow someone else's mess become my reality. There's an old Italian proverb that you shouldn't cook when you're angry. The anger gets into the food. That carries weight because every thing we do in LOVE is different, its better, it tastes better, feels better,
moves people better. Had that woman been moving in love she could uplifted the lives of everyone she touched that day. I learned something that day. No matter what's going on around me, I still need to move in love. Even though I did something nice for my family, I allowed someone else's attitude to affect mine. I should not have brought that home with me. I should have checked that attitude at the door.
Stay Prayed up
Curt
#webechurchin