A friend once described work as, “just another opportunity to love.” I thought that was cute. And kind of forgot about it. At the time, I was in a job I hated, partially because I was almost always all by myself. I love working with people and detest being by myself. So the whole “just another opportunity to love” didn’t really fit so much. It was more like “just another opportunity to not start belting out the soundtrack to The Little Mermaid to keep myself from boredom.” It required a great deal of self-control on a daily basis. Or maybe it was “just another opportunity to be thankful.” Hmm…it was one of those.
Well, all that to say, tonight I got to experience both of those (well maybe not Little Mermaid.)-- “just another opportunity to love ” and “just another opportunity to be thankful.” Long story short: it was a crazy, highly stressful night. Even though I’m “just a hostess” I busted my butt to help the highly stressed servers. I bussed tables, ran food, watered, set, polished silverware, seated people, apologized to angry guests that the food was taking so long…(none of which is actually in my job description, by the way). We had a huge group of people who ran a tab of about $1000, so I knew that the server I worked with would get an automatic gratuity of close to $200, plus there were other people in the restaurant. So it’s only logical for me to expect that she would give me a decent tip for helping her out.
Seven dollars.
That’s it. Didn’t even break the double digits. Now, I’m not trying to be greedy here, but I’d be lying to say I wasn’t rather put off. Did she really value my help that little? I should’ve just let her deal with the pissed off people by herself for that appreciation. I left work trying very hard to have a good attitude about the whole thing.
As I brooded while driving home, I very quietly heard the Holy Spirit whisper, “Who do you work for?”
“But did you see how she treated me?” I responded, avoiding the question. “Not to mention, she has this terrible habit of patronizing me so that I feel like I’m a seven year old and it’s making me crazy!” Silence. I knew He was waiting for my response, although I was still determined to get His sympathy for this malfeance. “I can’t believe she treated me like that. How selfish. I would be so much more generous. Maybe we should switch places. What do You say to that? I know I just got hired but I could get a promotion.”
Once more a tender, gentle voice, “Who do you work for?”
He wasn’t going to let this one go.
Finally, I begrudgingly answered, “You. I work for You.”
“In that case, who makes certain you get adequate recompense for your work? Who provides for you?”
“But you don’t -- ”
“Who provides for you?”
Sigh. “You do.”
At that moment I remembered Moshe’s quote, “work is just another opportunity to love.” I knew that God was asking me to love, even though that was the last thing I felt like doing. And I knew that He was asking me to let go and trust Him that I would get justly rewarded for my hard work.
I thought of that pathetic, measly seven dollars, a bitter reminder of the apparently low value placed on my labor. However, slowly my perception of those seven dollars changed. I suddenly realized that they weren’t meant to make me bitter, but to teach me, to train me, and quite frankly, build some desperately needed character in me. After all, work is just another opportunity to love.
