On Tips and Salons... Butt Kissing Or Sincere?
I love to give tips. Well,
love is a strong word; I guess I mean if I’m served really well, I feel good
leaving a nice tip.
When I have the money, I get
generous… Thus the next time I’m back at that place, i.e. a salon, everyone is
loving me, and everyone is ‘auntying’ me and I get a not so subtle preferential
treatment. There's also the embarrassing arguments amongst the girls on who's to make my hair or handle my pedicure and ridiculous stuff like that, with the truckload of compliments.
The butt kissing is appalling,
even as much as I enjoy it, but I’m certainly not deceived; thus it’s easy for me to separate
the genuine from the butt kissers.
Whenever I can only afford to tip sparingly with an apologetic smile or not at all cos my purse is emptied out, the butt kissers are
not so excited or eager to kiss butt when I come the next time... I take note
and sometimes, I happily tip those I notice as sincerely genuine and polite even when they
don’t render me any service for that day. I do this because they
look like they really are glad to see me and it doesn’t matter if I did or didn’t
leave a tip for the beautiful hair they made the last time I was in.
I think serving God is
somewhat similar. We give Him all the compliments and praise, expecting a
generous tip from Him for this service. The more He tips, the more we praise
Him and scramble to cater to His needs. But like a broke customer, if He fails to give us our desires, or in the
Nigerian lingo, drop something generously after days of fasting and night vigils, our true colors and the truth of our praise and worship in
revealed. We either keep smiling while praising Him and auntying Him, giving
Him the best of us, or we push Him aside, ignore Him when He walks in and move
to a customer who we presume will tip us, because butt kissing can only last so long.
It’s easy to stop praising
and trusting and praying and worshiping when we don’t get answered prayers and
when events of life hurts us, because we wonder why He would let us go through
it all if He really loves us.
But in moments like this,
moments when the tone of our praise starts changing, we need to ask ourselves
questions “Is our service out of genuine love, trust and awe of God or out of what we
need and what we’re able to get from Him?”
If you lost it all today
would you still praise? Though He slays you, will you still praise? If the tips
are sparing, will you still praise?
Paul Adefarasin said "Your relationship
with God should not be based on what He can do, but on who He is."
In the same way, If I have any business in a high end store, I dress the part, hold something visibly designer and expensive, I do this to get attention, I do this to avoid being snubbed! Yeah, you do it too... And it works, even if I'm wasting their time, because I look like I can afford their products. If I walk in there with all the money in the world and just a simple outfit and a label free bag, i wouldn't get that attention. sometimes we loose out on deals and relationships because we judge based on what a person can do from their appearance and not from who we discern them to be after giving them a chance. Don't limit God to what He can do, or what he's done and what He hasn't done... He is God, that's all the reason we need to praise even when the cherry trees don't blossom.
Though the cherry trees don’t blossomand the strawberries don’t ripen,Though the apples are worm-eatenand the wheat fields stunted,Though the sheep pens are sheeplessand the cattle barns empty,I’m singing joyful praise to God.I’m turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God.Counting on God’s Rule to prevail,I take heart and gain strength.I run like a deer.I feel like I’m king of the mountain! Habakkuk 3:17-19
Inyamu, I just nominated you for the Liebster Blog Award. You can read more details on my blog : http://www.therelentlessbuilder.com/2013/07/liebster-blog-award-courtesy-of-vegan.html
ReplyDeleteLove your write up, so true and deep.
ReplyDeleteGod help me to praise him all the time for who he his and not what he does...amen
ReplyDeleteAwww...She's gone and done it again!Your profound allusions and timeless lessons leave me feeling refreshed,inspired,revitalised and exhilarated(yeah,all of that)always.
ReplyDeleteGod bless you!
I sure count you when I count my blogsville blessings
This means a lot to me where I am now. God bless you dear
ReplyDelete