Service

Two of the things I love are food and travel. When you eat out, buy food to prepare at home, or travel you meet people in what we call the "service industry" - ie. maids, people working the front desks at hotels, chefs in kitchens, clerks at stores, waiters and waitresses, etc. The more I travel and eat, the more I realize how poorly people in these occupations are treated. Generally I try to make up for the ill attitude of others by compliments, larger tips, and smiles. 

Today, I was eating breakfast at a Comfort Inn in the back room where the maids eat (long story) and had the opportunity to watch several people come and badger this one poor woman for not working quickly enough for their liking saying that "it was her job". It was very clear that something was wrong and the hotel was understaffed - and it turned out that two people hadn't shown up for work, leaving one person to do a three person job.

This lead me to have two very different lines of thought. The first is obvious, people need to start showing grace to one another. We cannot be defined by others expectations for our occupations. We need to acknowledge that things happen that are beyond control and we need to be patient and not stress others out more. Its a good opportunity to practice out the golden rule, because I know that since I am human that there are going to be times when I need grace shown to me time and time again throughout my life, therefore, I really need to learn to show it to others.

The other thought was along the line of vocation versus lifestyle. Do we have expectations for people in vocational roles? Yes. Some of them biased and others harsh while some still are accurate. When someone fails to live up to our expectations we tend to get upset. But why don't people get upset when we don't live up to our lifestyle? By that I mean - shouldn't there be some expectations based on the Holy Scriptures of Christians and shouldn't people get upset when we fail to live up to them time and time again - not because of a mistake, but because we blatantly choose not to? Shouldn't people be asking where the Christians are when disaster strikes or asking why we aren't doing more for the homeless on the streets? Why do we hold someone more accountable to our ideas of their vocational responsibilities instead of the command to be like Christ?