I was recently reminded of God's Love at a California Pizza Kitchen.
It was 9:15 in the evening, the dinner crowd was gone, and I received the WORST service in the history of human dining.
I sat for 15 minutes before a server approached me. My order was mixed up. I was promised parmesan and never received it (this is huge- I am a parmesan freak)! My strawberry lemonade ran out mid-meal and wasn't ever refilled (this made conversation and mastication difficult).
NB: I realize these are all selfish things I'm talking about here.. so in addition to the reminder of God's Love, I was also reminded of my selfishness!
Halfway through the meal I started to think to myself, "What am I going to tip my server?" I was bouncing back and forth between giving her no tip or giving her a penny for a tip. Because a penny would tell her it's intentional, while no tip might lead her to believe I inadvertently forgot to leave a tip & I wouldn't want to make her think it was a mistake that she didn't get a tip (how terrible I am!).
When it came time to pay the bill, the phraseology passed through my head, "If I tipped her according to what she deserved, she would get nothing."
That's when it hit me.
The same is true of God's Love for me. If He loved me according to what I deserved, I would not be a candidate for His Love. Yet God loves me anyhow. I am unconditionally, undeservingly, and overwhelmingly loved. This is the case for every believer in Christ (Romans 5:8; Galatians 4:4-7; Ephesians 1:3-14).
In the end I decided I needed to love this girl as God loves me... and show it through my tip.
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Theology, Culture, & Musings
6 comments:
Having been a waiter for a number of years, I'm pretty tough on my waiters. Great reminder though to show the grace God has poured out to us.
Hey!
Thanks for sending your blog link!
Good reading--the blog and other links. Great to hear from you!
How ironic that I just made reference to you in an e-mail re: the Solomon Series yesterday and today you send this! First time I've had contact with you since June 1st!!
I checked the Denton site before sending the e-mail about the S series and was sad to read about the battle Tommy is in the midst of...then praising God with him for His sovereignty through it all.
Your experience struck a chord! Brian has always held to a 20% tip for the waiter/ress for the same reason you decided on @ CPK! If he has a problem, then he speaks or writes to the manager, but w/out berating the person failing to provide service. That's one of the things I love about him! And another is his blog...check it out!
I'll send him your link too. www.lazarus-resources.blogspot.com
Sounds like you're well--will check your blog to stay current with you!
Lauren
hey bret, nice to see you out and about in the blog-o'-sphere.
Thanks for sharing your lesson from the Lord. That's a sobber reminder for myself as well. We need to get together soon.
kaz- you are a hard man ;)
lauren- you rock.. & brian is one cool cowboy, i like his method that you mentioned
mary rene- i know! i blog now. watch out- it's dangerous!!
&
jeremy- yes sir, we do need to get together.. & talk about how you gave prof. felix a hard attack that semester (quite literally!) ;) miss you bro
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