QUARANTINE BLOG # 525

September 6, 2021

Many years ago, back in the before time, I was the manager of Taber’s Jewelers in the Augusta Mall (“Your jeweler with the 100 day money back guarantee”).  We had a company motto: CHAMP – Customer Happiness Always My Priority.  Training my employees I told each one, “You do not have the right to say ‘No’ to a customer.”  The message being, if what the customer wants is something you know you do not have the authorization to do, take it up the line.  If the request got to me (after my office manager or assistant manager) I called corporate headquarters and went through the chain of command.  Whether managing a jewelry store or pastoring a church, I believed – then and now – a happy customer tells 5 people, an unhappy customer tells 25.

Well, all of this is going somewhere (at least you hope it is).  A couple of days ago Amy sent me a story about a Lego customer who bought a $350 set which was missing an entire bag of parts, and the reply from customer service. 

Kit 75290, the Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars: A New Hope (a  wretched hive of scum and villainy) has 3,187 pieces.  

To help with the build, Lego packs all of their new kits’ pieces in numbered bags which match the instruction book (they used to come in one or two large bags and you had to separate them into colors – time consuming and hair pulling).  Imagine working through the 400 page instruction book, coming to Bag 14, and Bag 14 isn’t there!

John, who purchased the kit, contacted Lego customer service and told them of the missing parts.  My young Padawans and I have contacted Lego on 2 or 3 occasions, the response has always been courteous and the missing parts quickly supplied.  But the Lego employee who received John’s letter went above and beyond:

Priceless!

👎  Kristan Pitzen thinks it is funny to tell students to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the gay pride flag.  A teacher at Back Bay & Monte Vista High School in Orange County, CA, she posted a video on TikTok telling how there is no American flag in her classroom – she took it down because she said, “it made me uncomfortable.”  When the students chose to stand and not say the words – a gesture she says is “totally fine” – one student asked where there was a flag to which they could pledge.  She pointed to the multi-colored pride flag.

After outraged phone calls from parents, the school board responded to inquires from NBC Channel 4 with the following:

I don’t have a TikTok account and Google couldn’t find Pitzen’s video for me, but it did locate another California TV broadcast, and I captured the video from their telecast.

Perhaps Ms. Pitzen, with her total disrespect for America, the Flag, and the Pledge to Allegiance, could apply to teach in Afghanistan.  Oh.  Wait.  With the Taliban in charge, there is no school, and certainly not for a woman teacher.

👉  And in case you’ve forgotten, Ms. Pitzen, this is the flag, and these are the words we pledge:

👉  Amy shared the following Instagram.  The poster is Donald J. Trump, Jr.

👉  Good news for all of you fans of – they are coming back.  Sort of.  The group stopped touring in 1982 and produced a “farewell” album entitled “The Visitors.”  Well, in science fiction, no one stays dead (see Spock, Captain, USS Enterprise, The Wrath of Khan).  In music, I guess, a group never stops touring, especially in the 21st century when they can do it digitally.

The group, which has waited 40 years between new releases, has a new album, “ABBA Voyage,” coming out in November.  And beginning next May, they will be doing virtual concerts.  Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, and Anni-Frid sang and played together for hours every day for weeks, using motion capture and other techniques to create a 22-song, approximately 90-minute show.  Here’s hoping there will be a stream your favorite blogger can reach.

Oh, have you ever wondered how they got their name?  It’s an anagram of their first initials.

And another oh.  Mamma Mia! co-creator Judy Craymer said she was close to saying I do, I do, I do, I do, I do to a third movie when the global pandemic shut things down. I am ready to put down my money, money, money for a ticket.

👉  Here are some more Black Outs:

👉  The first of a new collection – things people wore to WalMart:

👉  Matt sent this great picture.  Don’t read the caption too quickly.

👉  Today’s sermon is the third in our series from the Lord’s Prayer: “More Blessed to Forgive Than to Receive”

👉  Today’s close, “Are You Doing a Great Work?” is by Jeff Schreve.

“So I sent messengers to them, saying, ‘I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” (Nehemiah 6:3).

Nehemiah was called by God to go to Jerusalem and lead the people to rebuild the broken down walls of the city. It was an important, God-directed, God-sized task. As such, it incurred the wrath and opposition of the devil as he tried every possible way to derail the project, discourage the builders, and defeat the Lord’s plans.

On one occasion, the enemies of God tried to lure Nehemiah away from the rebuilding of the wall by asking for a conference to discuss their differences. He told them he was doing a great work and could not come down to meet them. He saw that what he was doing – an unglamourous, dirty, backbreaking, sweat-filled, manual labor-type of job – was in reality a great work for God.

Whatever work God has truly directed you to do, that work, no matter what it may be, is a great work. Maybe it is taking care of babies, or working with students, or teaching children, or leading a Bible study, or helping behind the scenes, or singing in the choir, or playing in the orchestra, or serving as a prayer warrior, or visiting shut-ins, or helping the under-privileged, or just letting your light shine in your daily routine. Don’t let the devil discourage you into thinking what you are doing does not matter. Any God-directed work is a great work. 

Be encouraged this day as you seek the Lord on what He wants you to do, and do it with all your might. Make it your goal to serve the King each day and do everything for His glory. That kind of heart attitude makes the most mundane of tasks a spiritual experience that honors the Lord Jesus.

-30-