"Welcome to Arby's, may I take your order?""Yeah, I'll have the #2 please, with a Coke."
"Will that be all?"
"Yes, thank you."
"Would you like to donate a dollar to the Foundation for Starving, Crippled Orphans with Malaria Fund, sir?"
"Uhhhh..." (looking around nervously and hoping no one's listening): "no, thank you."
(with a sigh of disgust): "Your total comes to $5.71."
I mean, it is only a dollar, right? Would it kill me to throw in an extra buck? Maybe my distaste for the question is less about the money and more about the principle: I want to say, "Listen, man, I just came here to eat lunch- take it easy!" But now, because I came expecting food (and not to solve world hunger on my lunch break), I have to choke down every bite feeling like a complete jerk and utter degenerate.
With that said, it makes me wonder what Jesus would have done- in the serious way, not in the ridiculous "I have a neon WWJD bracelet" kind of way. I mean, if my lunch meeting that day had been with Jesus, and He had been standing behind me in line when the guy asked me to chip in a buck for orphans- or hurricane victims- or, whatever, would I still stand on my conviction that "I came here to eat, not to be a servant"?
I'm not saying I'm convicted to open my wallet for every donation box out there; I'm not even saying Jesus would have put a buck in that Arby's jar... all I'm saying is: "am I willing?"
Wow, you have a way with words, Ryan. Great point. I often think to myself when the publix cashiers ask, would you like to donate a dollar to finding a cure for...? I am doing that every day through the adoption of our children who have special needs (though that was not our motivation for adopting them. But, as you said, just because we are investing in our children (as any parent does for the shear love of it), does that mean the Christ would not ask something else of us?
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