The Fred Factor

Wednesday night I was hanging out in Hudson News, browsing through magazines as we waited for our plane to arrive at Midway. It's one of my favorite ways to pass the time while at an airport and allows for the tabloid updates I'm too cheap to pay for:) As I flipped through the US Weekly, I couldn't help but overhear the cashier talking with customers; every customer that approached his register. I increasingly tuned my ears to the thoughtful way he engaged each person, whether they purchased a book or a pack of gum; asking them about their upcoming trip, plans for the holiday, or where they were coming from. He was kind and genuine, and made a job that could be ordinary very extraordinary through his interactions.

He got me thinking about this book that I had heard about over a year ago--"The Fred Factor"--inspired by a Denver postal worker named Fred who made his ordinary job as a postman extraordinary through the way he served people and engaged in relationships.

A couple days later on Christmas Eve, I was in line at the grocery store in Phoenix behind a woman who was deaf (I believe I was flipping through People). Again, I couldn't help but notice how the cashier interacted with her customer. I got the sense that they had built a relationship over time, and even though this cashier was hearing herself, she could understand exactly what the deaf customer was seeking to communicate. It was special to witness their simple, yet extraordinary, exchange.

I'm especially aware of the Freds that I encounter these days...maybe because I'm easily discouraged by how ordinary my job feels (or how I perceive it to be). Yet each of the individuals I come across are not in positions of accolade--you know, the jobs that other people praise and hold in high regard. God has and is using these "Freds" to call me to something extraordinary. Not in some foreign or exotic setting (at least right now); rather, just where I'm at...right here, right now.