Finding Jesus in Aisle 3: What Working in Retail Taught Me about Serving Christ

“I have a master’s degree,” I sighed, spraying the toilet seat with blue cleaner. “A master’s degree.”

I wiped the toilet seat with a coarse brown paper towel, careful not to let my lanyard fall too far forward as I leaned over the bowl.

Disappointment settled on my heart as I straightened up and scanned the toilet, checking for missed spots. I had pursued graduate studies to escape minimum-wage jobs, and yet here I was ten months out of grad school, still working a part-time retail gig to pay my bills while I established myself as a writer and editor.

Though I had published several articles within the past few months and had gained a small following through my weekly blog, I had also received a rejection email from every company I’d applied to thus far—if I was fortunate enough to receive a reply at all. Most employers hadn’t even offered me the courtesy of a response.

Why, God? I sighed. Why did you bless me with all that education just to leave me stuck in retail?

An Unlikely Path to Success

As I struggle to make sense of God’s plans for my life, I find comfort in the story of Joseph whose life of highs and lows seems, in many ways, to mirror my own.

As an adolescent, Joseph enjoyed all the perks of being his father’s favorite. The privileges he received as the trophy child made his brothers bitterly jealous of him, to the point that they “hated him and could not speak peacefully to him” (Gen. 37:4).

Granted, Joseph exacerbated the situation. After receiving a vision from the Lord regarding his future, Joseph flaunted it before his brothers, who “hated him even more for his dreams and for his words” (Gen. 37:8).

The hatred Joseph’s brothers harbored eventually drove them to throw him in a cistern and leave him for dead—until a more lucrative opportunity presented itself and they sold him into slavery instead (Gen. 37:12–28).

Thankfully, God was at work through all of Joseph’s misfortunes, ultimately fulfilling his dream by elevating him to the second-in-command of Egypt. But between the luxuries of his youth and the success of his political career, Joseph traversed a long, hard road marked by betrayal and humiliation. Genesis 39:2 tells us that when Joseph arrived in Egypt, “The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man . . . in the house of his Egyptian master [Potiphar].”

In light of this, it’s hard to understand why God allowed Joseph to be unjustly incarcerated for false accusations of sexual misconduct from Potiphar’s wife, especially after Joseph staunchly resisted her advances. And yet, we see that even in the midst of this betrayal, “the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison” (Gen. 39:22).

God used all the circumstances of Joseph’s life, from the religious upbringing of his childhood to the humiliation of his prison years, to shape him into a wise, just, and merciful leader. Had it not been for the lessons he learned as a slave and a prisoner, Joseph would not have been fit to step into his role as second-in-command of Egypt, or ready to forgive his brothers when they landed on his royal doorstep.

So it is in my life. God has instilled within me a dream for the future: visions of writing books that glorify him and tell of his mercy and grace. And like Joseph, I enjoyed a privileged upbringing. Though I don’t fully understand why, God lavishly blessed me with the financial resources to complete two degrees debt-free, a fact that would make many of my peers drop their jaws in astonishment.

But now, despite the calling of God to write and his track record of extraordinary provision, I find myself in a situation that seems incongruent with all that he has done before. Yet, as I reflect on the story of Joseph, only one answer provides clarity to my quandary: God must be using this season of struggle to shape me into the person he needs me to become before I can fulfill the calling he laid on my heart.

Servanthood, Submission, and Customer Service

In Mark 10:43–45, Jesus told his disciples, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Though our selfish hearts often resist this teaching, the call of the Christian life is not to be served, but to serve.

Like it or not, we do not always get to choose how or where we serve. For many of us, our dreams of Christian service look rather cushy. I daydream about the day when I can write and edit full-time from the comfort of my home, hiding behind a laptop as I type stirring articles or edit theologically rich manuscripts.

But for now, my service to the Lord involves responding patiently to cranky customers, cleaning up after people who are too lazy to put clothes back on hangers, and laying aside my task of the moment to help someone find a pair of socks. 

Though I often fail to approach my customer service job “without grumbling or disputing” (Phil. 2:14), I know that God is using my prolonged tenure in the retail world to make me more like Christ. Moreover, I know he has placed me in this specific workplace to be a witness to my colleagues. Since most of my coworkers are non-Christians, I have an invaluable opportunity to shine the light of Jesus in their lives through the way I conduct myself. They may never read the books I hope to publish someday, but they are reading my life—my living, breathing testimony of God’s redemption.

Remaining Faithful in the Waiting

Though I pray for the day when I can step out of retail and into full-time writing, I recognize that this season is teaching me lessons about humility, perseverance, and compassion that my eight years of post-secondary education (including a year of seminary) never could.

In Philippians 2:3–4, Paul instructs us to “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others” (NIV).

He goes on to remind us that Christ himself, though “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (vv. 6–7). If Christ “humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (v. 8), how much more should we?

God cares about our dreams. Whatever callings he has laid on our hearts he will be faithful to fulfill. We need not doubt that for a moment. But as much as God cares about our dreams, he cares even more about our spiritual growth and sanctification—and the people in our lives we may be tempted to overlook or ignore in pursuit of our dreams.

Though we may have grand and noble visions of serving God through our passions and creative pursuits, we must be willing to trust his timing as we wait for those dreams to unfold. In the waiting, let us remain faithful to God by surrendering ourselves to his will and embracing the service that he has called us to here and now, trusting that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6 NIV).

So, if you are wrestling with unfulfilled hopes and the disappointment of dreams deferred, please do not lose heart. Instead, trust that God will use every season of our lives for his glory and our good.