But in the fall it mysteriously stopped working, and lukewarm water just wouldn't do. So Kyle dug up the receipt for me, only to discover that the return date had passed! Knowing that, I dragged my feet on calling Home Depot to find out what to do next because I just don't enjoy cold-calling people or companies, especially when a negotiation is likely. I know that I put the receipt in a safe place because I would need it when I did finally deal with this. Unfortunately, it is still in that place, and that place has been lost to history. Without the receipt my interest in calling Home Depot plummeted even further.
I finally went there in person yesterday and explained my problem at the service counter to find out what the options were. Praise the Lord, it was super simple! They found the receipt in their system, printed it out and told me to come back with the fridge and they would give me store credit. I ignored the note at the bottom of the printout that read, "This receipt cannot be used for returns."
So I immediately went to the office and brought the fridge back to Home Depot. The Service Desk guy scanned a few things, but just as I was about to sign the transaction, I realized that they had returned the tax to me even though I never paid tax. It was about $7, but I never had it, so they shouldn't give it back to me! That little mention I made led us down a path of 20 minutes of phone calls to multiple managers, finally resulting in them just deciding to give me the tax anyway because they couldn't figure it out due to how the manager got around the tax when I first bought it.
The last thing I had to do was pick out the new fridge. I found it (still under $100, and bigger!) and brought it up to the same service desk because I also had to set up a formal tax-exempt account with them. But I told the woman I wanted to pay the tax on this one because they had returned the tax to me that I didn't pay in the first place and this would just even everything out.
The woman's reaction took my totally by surprise, "Did you go to Northwestern?" I realized I was wearing an old NWC shirt.
"Yes," I replied.
"Well, you are just a wonderful image of Christ!" Come to find out, she had two kids go through NWC, and is currently reading a Piper book that she's loving.
That was about the last situation I ever expected to be pointed out as a witness for Christ. Granted, if that woman hadn't been a believer I doubt she would have made the leap from financial integrity to Jesus on the cross, at least not without more of a conversation. But whether or not the world fully understands why we are compelled to do good, we are still called to do so. Scripture calls it being the "fragrance" of Christ (2 Cor. 2:14ff); I once had a youth pastor call it "being Jesus with skin on." However you want to say it, the way we act to the world reflects Christ for good or ill. I want to continue striving to mirror Christ in a way that honestly reflects him, and in so doing, change the world through the simplest encounters.
