Jared Wilson at the Thinklings linked to my post on Astonishing Generosity and talked about a way he recently practiced it. I hesitate to share this with you because it is a testimony and it does make Jared look good (which, though I've never met him, from his writings I think he must be a really great guy), and I know he didn't want that. Furthermore, I don't want to start any kind of chain reaction where bloggers start trying to top one another's stories, but Jared really hits the nail on the head when he says this:
Sunday evening, Becky and I were dining out, and our waiter messed
up our order in a few ways. He was very nervous for having done so. He
ended up giving us a free appetizer and a free dessert. And even so, I
could tell he was fearful of the compensatory repurcussions of his
mistakes. I decided to give him a 50% tip, because even if he didn’t
know we were Christians, I wanted him to be astonished by grace after
we’d left.I don’t say that to brag but merely to encourage you to think of
small, practical ways you can extend grace to people. Not necessarily
to “evangelize” or further your or the Church’s reputation, but just
because it is a Jesus sort of thing to do.
Jared's story reminds me of a John Maxwell story that I think I have shared here before. He was in a diner with someone and it seems to me they ordered a pie and coffee, a really simple and inexpensive order. The waitress was having a bad day, seemed a little surly and offered astonishingly bad service. If the bill was $10 Maxwell must have tipped $20 and pulled her aside and said something to the effect of "I can see you are having a bad day and I am sorry, I hope this cheers you up a bit."
The reason I like this is because I was encouraging a Sunday School class to be generous tippers one time and someone piped in that they will if they earn it. I just pointed out that this is the opposite of grace - a real act of grace would be to tip someone well whose service has not been so hot.
I also understand the economics of this and don't want to make this a law. Christians should tip well and appropriately but let's face it, most of us don't have the disposable income to be an astonishing tipper every time we get a meal. But I do think we need to always tip on the generous side of the norm and then look for opportunities to tip astonishingly.
And Jared is right, simply because it is what Jesus said we should do, whether we get to mention Jesus or our church. But I also can't help but feeling that if we take Pratt's advice and become regulars at certain establishments, and if we become the kind of customers they like to wait on, that we will have opportunities to witness.
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