Time Well Spent

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was beginning to deliver pizza for Papa Johns. I have continued to do that until today. I have turned in my notice and am no longer scheduled to work.

There are a couple questions that I would like to answer about my time there. The first is, "What did I learn during my time as a pizza delivery guy?" Here are is one answer to this first question.

Be generous. Our God is a generous God who blesses us beyond what we deserve and even need. However, many times when I have an opportunity to bless someone I instead look for what is the minimum I can do to get by. I have always acted that way because of what I viewed as my limited resources, but that is not good. Being generous is not about my resources but about a complete change of attitude and boils down to my attitude about the money God has provided. Do I hoard and guard it so I can get what I want, or do I look for ways to be responsible, but yet be generously abundant?

Here's an interesting example that I learned in my path to be more generous. I was in the local Publix and I was looking for a way to be generous with the check-out person. After checking out, I handed both she and the bagger a $1 and said thank you. I told the check-out person that they probably never got tipped and I wanted them to experience the joy of that.

The problem was that Publix has a no tipping policy. They even have little badges that say "No Tipping" So in my effort to be generous and create a positive spirit and emotion, I actually created some tension and angst for the workers instead. The bagger even handed the $1 back and said he couldn't take it. I thought I was being kind and generous but instead I was totally missing the whole idea of what being generous is about. After talking it over with my sister-in-law and her wisdom gave me clarity on this, I decided on a different approach. I could have been just as generous and accomplished my purpose by asking what their favorite candy bar is and purchase that for them. That way I avoid putting them in a difficult position and still get to be generous in expressing God's love for them in tangible ways.

This is just one of the little lessons that I learned in reference to being generous. If this were to be the only lesson that I learn from six months delivering pizzas then that was well worth the time.