Ministering With the Tip
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Generally speaking, we act just as we are expected to act. We do things the way we've always done them. We react in most situations like we're expected to react. In a way, society runs on the expectation of consistent behavior. If someone cuts you off in traffic, you wave your arms and yell, so that the person sees you. If you get bad service, you complain. If you get bored in church, you lay your head back on the pew and take a nap. Oh, do you doubt me on that last one? Let me remind you that the preacher is the one that sees everyone. And people definitely do nap in church. And, when it comes to waiters and waitresses, you give good tips for good service, and lousy tips for lousy service, right? Of course right. Except when it's wrong. Except when the situation calls for the exact opposite. Except when perhaps the call of Christ to love someone leads you to take a path less traveled. Check out this wonderful story from Billy Coffey about a waitress and the tip a man left behind.
John told me that one night while he was in college, he had dinner at a local restaurant with one of his psychology professors. Their waitress was a young, twenty-something lady named Anna, who seemed to have a bit of a personality problem and could have used a refresher course in customer relations. She was rude and offensive and vulgar. She forgot up their order twice and, when she finally got it right, rewarded John and his professor by unceremoniously dropping their plates on the table with a loud thud and walking away. They nearly died of thirst because she never returned to offer more drinks. And when she finally resurfaced forty minutes later, she greeted them with a curt “Ya'll done?” With a “Yes, ma'am” from the professor, she scribbled their bill onto a receipt, pushed it to the middle of the table, and walked away. Two specials, two drinks, two cups of coffee—fifteen dollars and forty cents....READ MORE