Get some extra fries
With our kindness
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
In this great nation of ours there is one common experience that binds us together: disappointing fast-food service.
I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of our order being wrong, the straws being forgotten, and even the staff being unprofessional or seemingly rude to us.
Especially in our current workforce environment, it’s rather easy to place the burden of these failings on the school kids working behind those drive-through windows.
How often do we hear, or even make the complaint, that kids these days have no work ethic, sense of professionalism, or genuine job skills?
That is to say, it becomes rather easy for us to think evil, judgmental thoughts of these young service employees. This presents a challenge for the believer seeking to live in godly love, as we are told love “thinks no evil.”
Once during my time as a supervisor in the security industry a new employee, a young man fresh out of high school, was assigned to my team. A problem quickly emerged when I found that the young man would always answer phone calls in a very unprofessional way.
The lack of professionalism seemed rude to our client, and was a problem I had to address. I’ll admit I initially thought evil of the new employee, convinced that his younger generation simply had no manners or work ethic and this unprofessionalism would be a consistent problem I’d have to deal with.
Reminded of the above passage, I decided to set aside such judgmental thoughts, and offer some guidance to him instead. I explained how to answer phones in a respectful and professional way.
To my pleasant surprise, there was never another issue with him answering phones. I realized then that my judgments of his work ethic were entirely false.
The young man was more than willing to be a responsible and excellent worker. He simply had never been given proper guidance on how to do so.
Going back to our discussion of fast-food:
What if we set aside our evil, judgmental thoughts, and instead approached these young workers with compassion and understanding?
Maybe we could remember a time when we felt unsure and awkward when speaking to customers? Maybe we could remember a time we were new at a job and struggling to learn how to do it right? Maybe we could realize that their apparent flaws are simply moments of growth along their lifelong journeys.
Maybe we could remember to stop thinking evil of them, and start treating them with love.
Maybe then we could even get some extra fries with our kindness.