Food
Service
Our love to God is measured by our everyday
fellowship with others and the love it displays. Andrew Murray
I try to apply the character of God to every aspect of my
life. My husband and I were discussing
the incident where the Pastor of a church went to a restaurant and when it came
time to pay her bill an automatic tip was added to it. The Pastor marked through the tip and wrote a
note that said, “I give 10% to God. Why
should you get 18%?” She then marked
through the tip and signed her name.
The story goes further in that after this was publicized on
TV the Pastor called the restaurant complaining because it was hurting her
ministry because people in her church recognized her signature. The conclusion to this story, at least for
now, is that the waitress was fired.
Have you ever gotten to know your waiters at your
favorite restaurants? My husband and I
go to some of the same restaurants all the time and we know all of the wait
staff. When you truly get to know them they will tell you what goes on behind
the scenes of being a waiter. This is
how it works. The minimum wage for a
waiter in Texas is $2.13/hour, with cash & tip minimum of $7.25. So often if they don’t make any tips they get
a check with a zero dollar amount because all of their check goes to pay
taxes. Many times they will get a party
who stiffs them. This means they don’t
tip them at all. Other times people will
walk out on the whole bill. Other times
you have those who eat the whole meal and at the end they complain about the
food so that the manager will comp the whole meal and these folks don’t tip at
all.
So you are a waiter and you are on your feet all day
sometimes taking double shifts. Many of
the waiters that we know are young adults. More often than not they are college
students paying their way through school, young single mothers trying to
provide for their families, young men working two jobs to make ends meet when
the ends keep getting further apart.
So you have a Pastor come in who is supposed to be a
person of God and who is held to a higher standard than the rest of us by
virtue of their title. I think what
bothered me the most about this incident was that this makes it harder for
Christians to make a stand for Christ.
The fact of the matter is that a non-Christian is going to see this
highly publicized incident and think, “If this is what Christians are all
about, I want no part of it.” Another thing that bothered me was this Pastor called
the restaurant to complain about how this very public incident was affecting
her ministry. The fact of the matter is
it was a choice this Pastor made that reflects her true character. The Pastor in turn is trying to place the
blame of her bad choices on a waiter who happened to serve her food and was
following the policy of every restaurant I’ve ever been to, which is large
parties are assessed an automatic 18% tip.
If you don’t like this policy you don’t have to eat there.
So I will close with this. The next time you go out to dinner, think
about why this waiter is there in the first place and make a point to get to
know them. Take the time to think about what your waiter may have been through
that day. They are God’s child just like the rest of us. Would you want to face God on judgment day
with this on your record?
Prayer for the Day:
Heavenly Father, I spend a lot of time in restaurants and I love my
waiters. There’s JoJo, Jesse, Shay,
Taylor, Izzy, Ricochet, Jamie, Brittany, Aaron, Chad, Jeremy and Amber to name
a few. They are struggling to make a
living just like the rest of us. I pray
that you will help me to reflect Your character so that they can come to know
You as I do.
Scripture: Little children, I shall be with you a
little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am
going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love
one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My
disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:33-36
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