Waiting tables

After a car trip from New York to Chicago and back that lasted a little over two weeks, and a similar two-week long car trip in December from New York to Florida, my wife and I agree on something: the quality of service at restaurants has definitely declined. Now without a doubt there are plenty of restaurant waitstaff who work hard and try to do right by their customers. We encountered a few of them during those two trips. But on the whole we encountered poor service: indifferent service, extra long delays, significant mistakes made with meals with no offer to make things right.

Those experiences prompted me to reflect on my own attitude about service. It is not a big jump -- the most common word in the New Testament for "service," the word from which we get the term deacon, is used in Acts 6:2 of waiting tables. My initial response to the poor service we received was frustration and irritation. But further reflection led me to wonder: Am I so different? When I am called upon to serve, what is my own attitude?

This reflection was God's grace to me, for I fear that much of the time my attitude is poor, especially when such service is inconvenient or unpleasant. But surely this does not reflect the attitude of our Lord, who gladly served and sacrificed (Phil 2:1-11; Heb 12:1-3). And I have concluded that my poor attitude can only come from loving myself and thinking more highly of myself than I ought -- I value my own comfort and pleasure more than I value others, and particularly more than I value and delight in Christ.

A waiter's motivation for good service is a tip. It is external. And while Christ offers us rewards for faithful service (Lk 19:17), those rewards have their greatest value if we already value the one who gives them. "Well done, good and faithful servant" is most meaningful if we highly esteem the One who speaks the words. And that means that something has to change on the inside, that what I love, value, and esteem has to shift away from me to Someone Else. A tip will not do the trick. My heart must change.

But thanks be to God! He has given us the resources we need through His power by His great and precious promises (2 Pet 1:3-4). He has given me a new heart that wants to serve. He has given me food for my soul in His Word. He has sent His Spirit to dwell in my heart and progressively conform me to Christ's image.

Part of my plan for the summer is to dwell on the excellencies of Christ, and to spend some time in introspection asking God to help me see the idols of my heart, that I might turn from them and exult more fully in Christ. And in doing so, my hope is to become a better servant, someone who gladly waits tables.