I Gave a Tip Yesterday

I don't like tipping, but I had a good reason.

I hate our culture of tipping. It’s terrible.

Call me a grumpy old man. I am not going to add a tip on the self-service kiosk that I am forced to use to order my burger. I’m not going to tip for you to turn around, grab the food on the counter, and hand it to me. That’s ridiculous. My philosophy is that if I’m paying for the service/product directly, then I’m not going to tip. For example, I pay for my food, but not my waiter, so I’ll tip. I pay you to cut my hair, so I’m not going to tip you for cutting my hair.

HOWEVER, that theory goes out the window if you go above and beyond for me. If you’re incredibly nice and brighten my day, I’ll consider giving you an exception to my tipping rule. That’s what happened yesterday.

I went to a coffee shop that I frequent when writing sermons. I find it helps me focus being out of the office for those times. Every time I go when the owner is working, she is so happy and delightful that it actually makes my morning a little better. Before I left, I struck up a conversation with her and asked her if she’s actually that happy or if she just puts on a face since she’s serving customers.

She started telling me that it comes natural to her because she’s just so grateful for everything in her life. The way she said it made me believe that she must be a Christian. If she wasn’t, she definitely needed to be. I ended up finding out that she is, and that she even grew up going to my church. We had a nice little conversation and then I headed out to another meeting.

As I was walking out to my truck, I began to think about what it would look like in my life if I was so joyful that others would come up to ask me why I was so happy. What if all Christians exemplified joy in such a way that it brightened others’ moods on a regular basis? What would it look like if those in our church who claim the fruits of the Spirit would naturally display them so easily and beautifully that people couldn’t help but notice? And what if it was so clear that other people like me actually approached us to know why?

I think of myself as a kind person, but I’m not a warm ball of sunshine. People don’t come up and ask me why I’m so joyful and fun loving. I’m guessing that most people reading this probably would say the same thing about themselves. But what is keeping me, what is keeping us from being those kind of people? John 13:35 says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Do we strive for people to know that we are Christians simply by the ways we act? By the love we have for any random Joe we might encounter? I don’t know about you, but I want to be known that way. And I want to work on being that person.

And by the way, if you live in Stoughton and don’t go to Autumn Pearl to grab your coffee, you should. It’s a delightful little shop.