Norm's Restaurant

I go to Norm's Restaurant for breakfast on New Years day because they have a Filet Mignon breakfast special at this time of the year.


As my wife and I were seated we passed an old acquaintance who I had met there in 1990. It turned out that he was to be our server.


We ordered and he left the table. My wife mentioned that he seemed terse and distant. When our food finally arrived it was stone cold. A cold steak and eggs breakfast was not what I had come here for.


Then I started to realize something. I used to attend Oden Fongs tuesday night bible studies throughout the 90's. After the study a lot of us Christians would go to Norm's Restaurant, which never closes, for some food and fellowship.


We would all witness to the staff of the restaurant. Mainly Candy and her two brothers, Hector and Louis. We were not an easy crowd to take care of, especially with all of the separate tickets and order changes etc. Usually we would fill about three large booths in the back.


Because we were so difficult to serve I always would make sure that we left a big cash tip on the tables to compensate for our being a tough bunch to serve. It often would be about $30.00 or more usually.

Then after a while I started to notice Louis ignoring me for apparently no reason. Some one else mentioned that they had noticed her ignoring them also. Louis had mainly been our server when all of us Christians got together along with the server Hector.

Fast forward to the 2000's. One of the brothers who was always present after Oden's bible study got into some trouble with a non~believer. They had some kind of personal troubles and the girl called one of my close friends for advice. She said, among other stuff, that her boyfriend had been caught by her lingering around the table in the restaurants after she would leave a cash tip and walk away. So a few times she looked back, only to see her boy friend pocket the tip before following her.

FLASH!

I went to Louis to ask her if there had ever been any tip after us Christians would leave. Her reply to me was, "I don't want to talk about it!"

So here it is 2011, twenty something years later, and Hector treats me bad because he knows we Christians didn't leave tips. I think, looking back in my memory that this guy was stealing the tips. He was always the last person to leave the tables when we left...

This character cast an evil shadow upon our Christian witness because of his greed! I can only wonder if he stumbled these people from ever coming to Christ.

And now I get an undeserved cold breakfast because of what he has done in the past.
Shame on him.

I wonder how far reaching ours sins are?

Thank God we enter this New Year with a Savior to rely upon, cling to and trust in.