Marty Dubois and I got together to talk last Thursday. At the top of our discussion was the loss of his wife Lisa, 10 months ago. (See here, and here.) We all miss Lisa very much. Linda and I have our "Lisa moments," when we think of her and how she impacted our lives. On this particular day the impact continued, as you will see.
Marty told me a story about Lisa I had not heard before. When they went out to dinner Lisa would see the waiter or waitress and feel compassion towards them. This affected how much Marty and Lisa would tip them. She knew they didn't make a lot of money, and tipped generously.
Then Marty told me something I'd never heard before, from anyone, any where. Whenever a waiter or waitress did a poor job, or was arrogant or rude or impolite or discourteous, Lisa would still tip them. I think many would think, "They don't deserve a tip so I'm not going to give them one!" Lisa was different. She had this Jesus-thing strong inside of her. She would tip them even though they didn't deserve it.
"Amazing. But how much?" I asked Marty.
Marty said, "Lisa would give them a 100% tip. She would blast them with a tip!"
So if the meal was $20, Lisa and Marty would leave a $20 tip. (!)
I shared this with Linda that afternoon on the way to Ann Arbor , where we were going to meet with a couple we are premarital counseling. "What a beautiful story!" I told her. "And so relevant, especially since I am preaching on Romans 12:14 and 17 this coming Sunday. I asked Marty permission to share this with our people."
When we finished the counseling session Linda suggested that we eat at one of our favorite restaruants, Mongolian BBQ. We've always had great service here, and love the food. This is a restaurant where you wait for your waitress to bring you a bowl, which you then take to serving tables stocked with vegetables, fish, seafood, beef, and various sauces and spices. You fill your bowl, then take it to the large circular grill where cooks stir-fry it. We were seated, and waited for our waitress to come as we smelled the food being grilled behind us. I was hungry!
But the waitress never came.
We sat. And we sat.
And we smelled the food.
And we saw others eating the food.
I saw what I thought to be our waitress, standing by another table talking long with the people there.
I was feeling angry. I wanted to shout "WE'RE OVER HERE!!"
Enough! I took matters into my own hands, and went to the door leading into the kitchen and asked for two bowls.
Linda and I got our food, sat down, and our waitress finally appeared. "Would you like noodles, white rice, or brown rice?" she asked.
Brown rice.
"I'll get it for you immediately."
But the brown rice never came.
I got up, went to the door into M-BBQ's kitchen, and asked if someone could get us a bowl of brown rice.
Throughout the rest of our meal our waitress did come around to ask how we were doing. The thought came to me, "She does not deserve a tip." Then I thought, "No.... God...., you can't be telling me to tip her, and make it 100%!"
There I sat, a man alone with his God and under conviction, remembering the story of Lisa, and thinking about the verses I will preach on in just a few days. We had alway had great service at M-BBQ. Why this, today?
As I was wrestling in my tiny mind over this matter, the waitress came again and said: "I'm so sorry for the poor service today. Please accept these two $10 cards off your meal. You can use them now if you like." Warmth and love flooded my soul. She took $20 off our bill and returned with the check - only $6! I tipped her 100% of $6, which is $6.
No one deserves the blessing of God. Mostly, people curse others who hurt them. "Cursing" is a boundary-defining act. It says, "You hurt me and therefore I set a boundary on my love and blessing when it comes to you." "Blessing" is a boundary-removing act. To bless someone who does not deserve it is to say, "There is no wall between my love and blessing and you." This is how Christ treats us, right?
Such is the transformed, non-conformist love of Jesus.
