Hard-Learned Lesson from Applebee’s

“I give God 10%.  Why do you get 18?”  

So someone apparently wrote on their bill at Applebee’s recently.  Referring to the tithe, it would appear that the guest is a Christian, bolstered by writing ‘pastor’ on the bill as well.  ABC News

Another waitress took a photo of the check and posted it online and it’s gone viral.  That waitress has been fired.

Set aside for the moment whether she should have been.  Set aside the reality that wait staff receive (by law) far less than minimum wage because of the tips they receive.  Set aside the report that the guest demanded that the responsible employees be fired.

Consider instead, particularly we Christians reading this, the idea of transparency in all we do.

Should not our claimed biblical model for life lead us to only think, write, say, and do, that which we would have no problem being broadcast to the world?  Should we not be willing to have our acts, our lives, written on a t-shirt and worn for all to see?

It seems that far too often, we wear our crosses and other indicia of our faith boldly for all to see, forgetting somehow that our behavior is a far more eloquent testimony to our faith and our Lord than our bling.

Don’t leave a tip or leave a mean one, for no fault of the server?  Our Lord is a cheapskate.

Complain when someone tells the truth – even a painful truth – about you?  Our Lord cannot handle truth.

Refuse tipping out of an ignorant misunderstanding of how wages work in the serving industry?  Our Lord doesn’t know anything of the real-world economic challenges of real-world people.

People of faith, it’s as simple as this: we are not to live anonymously.  We are to live loudly and boldly, proclaiming the love, mercy, understanding, compassion, justice, and even humor, of our risen Lord every second of every minute of every day of our lives.

And when we fail, as we surely will, we’re not to blame others; rather, we’re to seek forgiveness and do better the next time.

So today I am going to be a better co-driver on the highways of life – taking turns, being patient with the slower, allowing room and space for others to travel at their own pace.  I'm going to try to live my life as if the whole world is watching, because they are.

How about you?