Let me tell you my favorite story of one person's
search for a mission, the story of Johnny the bagger. Johnny works at a grocery
store. One day he went to a training event led by a speaker named Barbara Glanz.
She was talking to three thousand frontline workers for a supermarket
chain-truck drivers, cashiers, and stockers.
Barbara was speaking on how people can make a difference. She described how
every interaction with another person is a chance to create a memory, to bless
someone's life. She talked about how important it is to look for those moments.
She placed on the walls, as she always does when she speaks, posters with
inspiring sayings. She told some stories and then went home, but she left her
phone number behind. She invited the people at the conference to give her a call
if they wanted to talk more about something she said.
About a month later, Barbara received a call from one of the people at that
session, a nineteen-year-old bagger named Johnny. Johnny proudly informed her
that he had Down syndrome, and then he told her his story.
"Barbara, I liked what you talked about. But I didn't think I could do anything
special for our customers. After all, I'm just a bagger." Then he had an idea:
he decided that every night when he came home from work, he would find a
"thought for the day" for his next shift. It would be something positive, some
reminder of how good it was to be alive, or how much people matter, or how many
gifts we are surrounded by. If he couldn't find one, he would make one up.
Every night his dad would help him enter the saying six times on a page on the
computer; then Johnny would print fifty pages. He would rake out a pair of
scissors and carefully cut three hundred copies and sign every one.
Johnny put the stack of pages next to him while he worked. Each time he finished
bagging someone's groceries, he would put his saying on top of the last bag.
Then he would stop what he was doing, look the person straight in the eye, and
say, "I've put a great saying in your bag. I hope it helps you have a good day.
Thanks for coming here."
A month later, the store manager called Barbara. "Barbara, you won't believe
what's happened here. I was making my rounds, and when I got up to the cashiers,
the line at Johnny's checkout was three times longer than anyone else's. It went
all the way down the frozen food aisle."
The manager got on the loudspeaker to get more checkout lines open, but he
couldn't get any of the customers to move. They said, "That's okay. We'll wait.
We want to be in Johnny's line." One woman came up to him and grabbed his hand,
saying, "I used to shop in your store once a week. Now I come in every time I go
by-I want to get Johnny's thought for the day." Johnny is doing more than
tilling bags with groceries; he is filling lives with hope.
There is a reason Johnny's lines are three times longer than anyone else's. Our
souls need to be fed, just as our bodies do. Bodies are fed by protein and
carbs; souls are fed by words.
What people need from us the most is not more information. They just need words
that will feed their souls. Sometimes words as simple as "thank you" or "I hope
you have a really good day" can feed a soul.
Of course, what makes the words on the paper mean so much is who they come from.
Words alone can come from a fortune cookie.
When people get them from Johnny, they are reminded of the beauty of one person
forgetting his own limitations and seeking to make his life a blessing to
someone else. Whatever burdens Johnny carries make his gift that much brighter.
Know who the most important person in the store is? Johnny the bagger.
A few months later, the manager called Barbara once again to tell her Johnny was
transforming the whole store. He told her that when the floral department had a
broken flower or unused corsage, they used to throw it away. Now they go out in
the aisles, find an elderly woman or a little girl, and pin it on her. The
butchers started putting ribbons on the cuts of meat they wrap up for customers.
The people who make their shopping carts are trying to make carts with wheels
that actually work.
And ail the peoples of the grocery store will be blessed through Johnny. If it
can happen in a grocery store, it can happen anywhere.
By the way, do you know who the most important person in your family, your
neighborhood, and your workplace is? You.
You can be a Johnny the bagger. What Johnny does isn't slick, complicated, or
calculated. He is just a bagger expressing his heart. You can help make that
happen wherever you are.
Ortberg, John. When the Games is Over it all Goes Back in the Box. Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 2007, p. 158-160.
The Illustrator: This daily newsletter is dedicated to encouraging
everyone to look towards Jesus as the source of all the solutions to our
problems. It contains a daily inspirational story, a Bible verse and encouraging
messages. HTML and plain text versions available.
The Nugget: Published three times a week, this newsletter features inspirational devotionals and mini-sermons dedicated to drawing mankind closer to each other and to Christ.