Togetherness In A Convenience Store

The county where I live has been the hardest hit in Pennsylvania during this winter storm.
At the height of the storm, 500,000 people were without power.
In this rural setting, there is no water since you need electricity to operate the well pump.
I have read reports of people collecting water in buckets from dripping icicles.

As hard as it has been on everyone, there have been many blessings as well.

Many supermarkets and many retail stores are closed due to the loss of power.
Many gas stations have no electricity to operate the gas pumps.
Ten schools in our district are without power.
Once the roads cleared, driving at night has been eerily dark.

Here and there you see light in scattered houses due to generators.
Some neighborhoods come back online a street at a time.
Some have admitted to envy as they look across the street and see light in other houses.
Somehow there is a camaraderie that exists when you all go through something together.

I saw that firsthand at a convenience store.
It is the kind of store with gas pumps and a small market.
It is also has a deli that is usually crowded at lunchtime as people buy something to eat.
I had filled up my gas tank prior to the storm; now the lines were three cars deep.

My husband and I and youngest daughter went to this market to order sandwiches.
Every place we possibly thought of to get our food had no power.
We walked inside knowing it would be crowded.
Crowded was an understatement.

The store had more workers behind the deli than I ever imagined possible.
People were lined up with their numbered receipt having ordered at a kiosk.
No one was buying milk as one usually does here.
No one had electricity to run their refrigerators.

As we waited, total strangers were talking and sharing stories of the storm.
People gave suggestions to others as to how they can get through until the power returned.
Some suggested putting your freezer items on the back deck so they would remain frozen.
Others talked of generators and which neighborhoods were hit the worst.

Togetherness.
Togetherness in a convenience store.

Total strangers sharing hard times.
Total strangers looking out for each other with sincere caring.
Total strangers connected by a shared burden.

If I had walked into this store on any given day, things would have been vastly different.
People would have been texting or talking on their phones.
People would have had their iPod in their ears.
No one would have talked to anyone else.

However, now, without our gadgets, with only the bare necessities, we were vulnerable.
We couldn’t hide behind our technology and we had to engage.
We couldn’t feign indifference because we needed each other.
We were sharing a forced solitude, as we were closed off from the rest of the world.

I liked what I saw.
I have never seen such kindness and caring.
People generally seemed to like each other.
There was no skepticism, no mistrust, and no categories.

We were all people without power, without food, and without heat.
We were sharing our struggles together instead of handling them apart.
We were “one-anothering.”
It was so incredibly nice.

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to someone else, for each one should carry his own load. Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor. Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. (Galatians 6:2-10)

Carry each other’s burdens.
As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people.

This Truth was fleshed out in a convenience store.
Suffering has a way of leveling the playing field.
There is no “better than.”
There is no comparison.
There is only sharing in the suffering of others who are going through the same thing.

I saw this played out after September 11.
I saw this played out after Hurricane Sandy.
I can list numerous times this compassion and burden carrying played out.
When we suffer, we need each other.

In reality, we always need each other.
I think we forget.
We get behind our gadgets and into our solitude and “every man for himself” takes over.
We need times like this to help us to remember.

No man is an island, Entire of itself…Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind, And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. (Taken from, No Man Is An Island, by John Donne)

We are connected to each other.
That is what Christ expects.
We are not to go through life in solitude and self-preservation.
We are to love as Christ loves and often that is through suffering.