Navigating Your Agency

Agency is a person’s ability and willingness to take action or intervene to produce a particular effect. How does your 2-word purpose play into whether you are called to step up or not?

Saturday, Judith and I were seated by the window at Jason’s Deli as we ate an early dinner. A bonus for eating at Jason’s is the free soft-serve ice cream offered to its patrons — yum!

As we began chomping on our salads, I noticed two boys on bikes ride up, lean their bikes against the exterior wall of the restaurant, and enter. They wandered around the tables to create the appearance they belonged there as customers. Next, they confidently strode to the ice cream machine. After releasing long streams of frozen delight into awaiting tiny cake cones, the bandits immediately exited the store and rode into the golden hour sunlight with the unjust rewards of their ice cream caper.

Pointing to the two boys riding away I said, “Judith, did you notice what those two 12-year-old boys (my guess) on bikes just did?” She hadn’t, so I gave testimony to the crime of the two cones.

Judith was aghast. With a 2-word purpose of Being True, her conviction was that the manager and the boys’ parents need to know what happened. These aspiring criminals needed to discover early on that crime doesn’t pay. Since the boys were on the lam, their petty theft went unreported and unpunished.

As we were finishing our casual dining, who shows up again? The two boys on bikes were returning to the scene of the crime! As they parked their bikes, I pointed them out to Judith. She witnessed them go to the restroom. Was it a new ploy to blend in as patrons to get seconds?

Yep! Upon exiting the bathroom the culprits calmly headed to the soft-serve machine. Judith promptly headed to find the store manager.

What the boys didn’t know was since their last visit the ice cream machine went empty, and minutes before their encore appearance, a team member poured in the ingredients to chill. From my window seat I looked into the seating area to see the boys at the soft-serve machine and 10 feet directly behind them was Judith reporting the biker gang theft in real time. Three adults watched as liquid goop sputtered into their awaiting yellow cones. After attempting all three levers — chocolate, vanilla, and swirl — the boys split for the exit, saddled up on their two-wheeled getaway vehicles, and sped away empty-handed.

True to her 2-word purpose, Judith took agency to report the shoplifting. Apathy for this incident isn’t in her spiritual DNA. The manager made a business decision and chose public relations over pursuit. I don’t condone the boys’ actions, but my inner and unruly 12-year-old Tom Sawyer was improperly amused.

In the book of Revelation, we read, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!?So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Does this remind you of the light switch description in?The On-Purpose Person? There we learn we are either off or on our purpose — there’s no in-between.

So the next time you find yourself torn between agency and apathy, use your 2-word purpose for navigating your dilemma.

By the way, I didn’t get any ice cream either.

Be On-Purpose!

Kevin