The Office: What I Want to Say vs. What I Say

I'm often baffled by man kind.  While I don't consider myself to be the most intelligent human being, and have my fair share of "duh" moments, there are times when I wonder if God skimped on the brain cell section for a few of His creatures.  The following conversation is one I've had more times than I care to remember:                

 "Ma'am, I didn't get my paycheck this week."               

  "Well..did you move, maybe?"               

 "Yes ma'am."                

 "Did you let us know?"                

 "Well...no ma'am..."                

 ...                   

                

At this juncture, I am faced with a few options.  The right words must be carefully chosen accompanied by the right tone so that the individual is neither shamed nor left without the appropriate information.  What I want to say, what wriggles at the back of my mind held at bay only by sealed lips and a desire to remain professional is as follows:                

 "Oh I'm so sorry sir, my telepathy is on back order...I've complained I can't tell you how many times but still it hasn't come in."                

or                

"I apologize, sir, but God passed me up when He was handing out telepathy, didn't think I could handle it."                

However, being of sound mind and wanting to look good in everyone's eyes, my normal response is much kinder and more professional:                

"Well, sir, you can send your updated address to..."                

What's sad about my desired response is that, like I said before, I have my own "duh" moments, I say stupid things, the geek comes out of her closet and shames me...and I would never want someone to respond in sarcasm, to assume I'm stupid, to make fun of me.  It's a painfully humbling experience when we realize we've hurt someone in the same way we've been hurt before, when we realize that we're not the pure hero of a fairytale and everybody else the villain and his cronies, our humble worshiping peasants, or our knight in shining armor.  As funny as I think my responses are at the heart of them is cruelty, sin.  It doesn't even really matter that I only thought it, the sin is still there...                  

                

The older I get the more I am confronted with my own sin.  The more I realize it's depth.  When I was young I knew I had a need for a Savior, but in my eyes at the time He was small, His work an addition to my already good life, but as time rolls by I begin to see the enormity of the work on the Cross, the sacrifice of Christ.                   

                

Romans 7:25

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.