1 Peter 4:9-11 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
This verse came to mind as I sat tonight in a sub shop. I won't use the name of the sub shop, although I should. There were three employees in the sub shop. One was a mid 40's manager, one young man about 20 the other about 24, None of them knew what they were doing. I am just going to be blunt, they DID NOT know what they were doing. There were about 5 people sitting waiting when I got there. Two of them looked very unhappy. I did consider walking out, but since I was hungry I didn't. So, I waited in line, for about 5 minutes. Finally one of the young men who turned out to be very friendly, waited on me. They were out of half the stuff on the menu (poor ordering or just busy? not sure, but they were out of stuff) So I made a simple order of a sub, ham and cheese and some soup.
I waited about 20 minutes, along with the other 5 people.
Two of the people, one which was a family of 4 decided they had waited long enough and said, in a very loud disgusted voice, "Make ours to go! This is ridiculous!"
The young man who waited on me was very apologetic, but it didn't matter. The father of the family of 4 was hungry and he was done for the day. He wanted his food and that was that.
He got it and left, mad.
There was a young woman and she looked ready to walk out. Keep tapping her fingers on the table, clearly frustrated. She got up I think 3 times to ask, "Is my order ready YET?"
I think had she not already paid she would have left, but realized that to get her money back at this point would only make things worse, so, she continued to wait.....and wait.....tapping and tapping.
It was pretty ridiculous that 5 people, 6 including myself had to wait for over 20 minutes (and they were all there BEFORE me, so they waited longer than the 20 minutes I was there) for a sandwich. So, as the orders were eventually made and taken, and everyone left,
a new set of customers came in. So, I sat there and just watched.
The manager did not know what he was doing, so therefore, the young men didn't know either. They kept asking each other questions, confused about orders, confused because half of the stuff they needed they didn't have. They started getting mad at each other. The manager had the least amount of patience and at one point I think I heard a couple swear words.
I wasn't sure who the manager was mad at, the company, the young men, himself, but he did not show hospitality to his workers or his customers.
He was for sure grumbling.
And he was NOT serving.
And a whole new set of customers were angry and upset.
As I watched people leave upset, mad and frustrated, I couldn't help but think...
I wonder what was going on in the managers life.
A host of life's problems could have started his day. He looked tired, maybe not enough sleep.
He looked bothered, like, why are all these customers coming into my store, I can't handle this many customers. He looked very frustrated with his two young employees. It was obvious to me that he had never trained them, and therefore; they were just as frustrated.
I wondered if he was a believer. If he sought a higher power to help him in his life, his job.
I started to pray for them all as I sat there, eating my sub. (I finally did get it)
I prayed for compassion, to each other, to the customers.
I prayed for someone higher up in the sub company to realize that they needed help at this store. More Training.
But more than anything, I realized that my perception of them was their reality.
And I had the power to complain, yell, scream, make them feel bad that they didn't know what they were doing. I too could be a frustrated customer and cause a scene and let everyone in the small shop know that I too was upset.
But if I had behaved that way, their perception of me would have been my reality.
And so, I had to ask myself, what do I want that reality to be?
Frustrated? Mad? Angry? Or, compassionate? Caring? Calm?
I wanted to look at them from Christ's perception, and I wanted them to see Christ in me.
So as the young man who waited on me came out to wipe tables, I smiled and as he kept saying he was sorry about the fact that they didn't have the soup or the bread I wanted, I said it was ok and that I would pray for a better day tomorrow.
He thanked me for coming in, said have a nice night, and I said, you too.
in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
That includes waiting on people in a sub shop and it includes being a customer in a sub shop.
In everything we do, we should glorify The One who makes it all possible.
When we are out and about in the world, we should remember,
other people's perception of us, is our reality.
Is that reality a Christ like attitude? Or a grumpy frustrated upset attitude?
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