Friday, October 4, 2013

Your Restaurant Server and Your Soul


            How generous are you?   I don’t have any scientific data, but I would wager that if we rated ourselves on a scale of one to ten, most of us would place ourselves on the upward side of the line.  It is easy for all of us to be legends in our own mind!

            But how would your wife, your husband, your children, or your friends rate you?  Even more, where do you think your server at the last place you ate would place you?

            I have been thinking about that as we prepare to speak about generosity because every one of my daughters has worked or is working as a server or hostess at a restaurant.  This week I sat down with some of them and emailed others to see what they thought about this issue of generosity.  The stories they told me were incredible.  There were wonderful accounts of people who treated my daughters with so much kindness and generosity.  There were other stories that made their preacher-father think unholy thoughts…

            Could it be that the way we treat those who serve us in a restaurant is a window into our soul?  Could it be a fair picture of who we really are and what we think when it comes to money and generosity?   The question is worth pursuing.  This weekend, we are going to be listening to Jesus and his encouragement (actually that is too soft a description) to be generous.  He criticizes the man who spends all his time building bigger barns to enable a future easy life.  Instead, he commands his followers in a beautiful and poignant phrase to be, “rich toward God.”

            Nobody lives life with the goal of becoming stingy.  Every single one of us wants to be generous.  This weekend, we are going to talk about a way to do exactly that.  Come and join us!  And after church, make sure treat your servers well at the restaurant…the preacher’s daughter may be serving you!

See you there,

Pastor Pete

           

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