church planting

I hope you begin to see the trend that I (Josiah) spend most of my time each day serving at Chili’s.  Here’s another story of how God’s working in our lives in Orlando.

At the end of my shift I had a table sit down and order Chicken Fried Chicken.  I rang in Country Fried Steak b/c I’m human and I make mistakes.  The food comes out and the three ladies look at it and say, “This isn’t what we ordered.”

No harm so far.  We weren’t busy.  Their food came out literally five minutes after they ordered.  I had my manager swing by and talk to them and we got them their correct order in a matter of 5-10 minutes.  They were still working on their salad and black beans so they weren’t without food at any point.

I bring out their correct order and magically there aren’t any mashed potatoes on the plate.  The lady to my right says, “You got it wrong again, there aren’t any mp’s.”  The lady to my left says, “Stupid.”  (Under her breath but loud enough for me to hear)

I’m furious.  I don’t show it.  I smile and say I’ll be right back with that.  They had mp’s in a matter of 40 seconds.

I continue to wait on them, anticipating their needs with refills and boxes and the whole nine yards.  I figure, I’m not going to let a grumpy old lady steal my joy for the day.

I bring the check and they pay with 100$ bill.  NOTE*  If you go out to eat and your bill is less than 50$  do NOT pay with 100$ bill.  We’re not a bank, we don’t have that kind of cash in our server books at 1pm, especially when everyone else is paying with debit cards.  It’s a huge hassle.

Anyway, I finally scrounge up their change and bring it to them with To-Go drinks.

They leave.

I go to the table to collect the tip but………………there is no tip.  There’s no tip.  They ran up a 50$ check and stiffed me.

I’m fuming.

I look out and see the ladies walking to their van.  On this van, neatly placed on the right side is a Jesus Fish.  Just like this car.

You can only imagine what’s running through my head now.  As I begin to sift through my thoughts to pick an appropriate one to attach to these ladies I look down and see this.

That’s right.  They left their take out boxes full of their left over food.  (There was a lot of it.)

I look out the window and see the ladies having a nervous conversation looking back towards the restaurant wondering if they can sneak back in knowing full well what they just did.

Then it hits me.

I grab the box and run out to their car and say, “Hey ladies!  You forgot your take out food!”  They say anxiously, “yes……yes we did, didn’t we?”  I reply, “I like your Jesus fish.”  ”You do?”  ”Yes ma’am, I’m a Pastor.”

Silence.

“Oh really?”  ”Yes ma’am, well you all have a great day!”

I watched those women talk to each other in bewilderment for the next five minutes as I cleaned their table.  They never came back in and tipped me, I didn’t even really care about the tip that much.  What I did care about was the example I got to set for my co-workers.  I spent the next ten minutes telling and retelling my story to my teammates and they laughed hysterically!  They couldn’t believe, first of all, that I would take those ladies their food after they had stiffed me and then they couldn’t believe how foolish those women must have felt after they received the knowledge that they had just stiffed a local Pastor waiting tables to scrape by.

I had a choice.  I could have cussed those women and bad mouthed them to my teammates and just been another disgruntled server, or I could swallow my pride, take those women their take out food and set an example for my friends at Chili’s that even when people treat you unfairly, you can still love them while exposing their wrong doing without hurting them.

I hope those women learned a valuable lesson today.  As Christians, how can we go to a restaurant, run up a 50$ bill and then not be gracious to the person who served us that meal?  You don’t have to tip 30% to show how awesome Christians are when they go out to eat.  Just be patient, kind, gentle, and generous and maybe people will recognize you by your love.

This guy rules.

So I’m teaching this kid guitar every week.

He’s 7.

He likes skateboarding and tap tap revenge.

I have literally exhausted every teaching method until this week.

He came into my office and got out his little beginner guitar and I looked at him straight in the eyes and said, “are you ready?”

“….for what?”

“to start a band?”

“………..” (his mind racing to places of fame and fortune….the Disney Channel)

“We have to write songs and then get on itunes, but we have to come up with a band name and then song names.”

Then after he diligently learned the lesson for the day we spent the last few minutes coming up with names.  This is what he came up with…on his own.

Band Names: Rubber Bird, The Repenters, The Burning Hearts, Rocket, The Rising Sun, The Heart & The Soul, Everyone yell Jesus, It’s Raining Glory

Song Names: Shamin, Day & Night, Making Glory, Me & The Plains, Me & The Earth

I’ve never had a better guitar lesson in my life.

Sometimes people find themselves under the umbrella of the fact that they might be cooler than “normal” people.  It happens a lot to successful people.  It happens a lot to beautiful people.  It happens a lot to kids who find out that they can wear skinny jeans and still listen to hip hop.  But most importantly it happens to worship leaders.  It’s true, we’re human and we all get to a point where the lights are addicting and our boot cut jeans falling perfectly over our 100$  Buckle boots make us feel cooler than we really are.

1 Peter 5:5
Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

I was humbled Sunday morning in a serious way.

Can you tell the difference between these two medications?

Because I couldn’t at 6am until I had ingested the nighttime cold medicine that I thought was daytime.

I shared it with both services and needless to say they howled with laughter and groans of empathy.  It turned out to be fine and the coffee offset the drowsy effect the medication had that morning, but something else was there.  All of a sudden it was no longer about the rad Obey t shirt I was rocking.  It was no longer about the stud Martin I was strumming.  It wasn’t even about the drops and comebacks we did with the new song.  It was about being focused.  I don’t think I’ve ever been that focused on leading worship until that morning.  I wasn’t thinking about opening or closing my eyes.  I wasn’t worried about engaging or connecting (which is a good thing to worry about) My only concern was leading these worshippers into the throne room.

Thank You Lord for humbling me.

How have you been humbled this week?

Alright….worst Christmas gift ever.

We’ve all had that ONE gift (yes I’m totally branching from what Brant was talking about today on WAYFM) and there’s always that initial moment of inauthenticity where we gather our thoughts on how to express gratitude without lying.

Mine?  Full on Ninja Turtle Footie Pajamas when I was 15.  Not only did I have to show everyone, but they made me put them on….much like that poor kid in the bunny suit above.

So, people, how about you?  What was your worst Christmas gift?

JP

I’ve been told I look like Andy Bernard from The Office, Ed Burns and Dane Cook.  Here’s a side by side.

 
Personally I don’t see it….what do you think?

What celebrity have you been told you look like?  Send side by side photos to josiah@realjourney.com

JP

baller.

Thanks to The Freemans for this little gem.