Ben Milstead

Listening, Learning, Sharing

Unexpected Kindness

The family and I went to Logan’s Steakhouse Saturday night for dinner.  I love Logan’s but for whatever reason we never go there.  We had a great meal, enjoyed the atmosphere, and all three kids were well behaved (a rarity).  We finished our meal and I ask the waitress for our check.  She smiled and told us that it had been taken care of.  She told us that a man had paid for our meal and the meal of another family that was sitting a few tables over.  That family had a small child in a high chair and that was the only thing that we seemed to have in common with the other family.  Of course we questioned the waitress on who the man was and she didn’t know.  He was sitting two tables behind us and was there alone, she said.  He was long gone.
 I was almost overwhelmed with emotion and I wasn’t real sure why at the time.  It was only a $35 meal but it was so much more than that to us and it was on my mind all weekend.  Here are a few things that I’ve thought about.

1)   The man gave us the gift knowing he wasn’t going to get anything in return, not even a thank you.  He didn’t stick around for the praise.  He didn’t have a “look at what I’m doing” moment and draw attention to himself.  This reminds me a lot about true servanthood in the church which I can’t wait to write about later on.

2)   Why did he do it?  What went through his mind as he was making that decision?  Is this something he does a lot?

3)   Why didn’t I notice him?!?  There was a man eating dinner alone in a nice restaurant at 7:30 at night and I didn’t even notice him!  How sad that I had that kind of tunnel vision!

I want to be more like this man even though I have no idea who he is.  I want to be open to what God tells me to do even though it might not make sense to me at the time.  I want to do things with no intentions of getting any praise or recognition.  I want to be more in tune to the needs around me and the people around me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 2, 2008 Posted by benmilstead | Influences | | 1 Comment