niceties
This morning I went through the Panera drive through to get an iced coffee. When I got to the window, the guy handed me a hot coffee. Normally I would assume it was a misunderstanding, politely take it and drive away. I don’t like to make a fuss. But this time, I told him I had ordered my coffee iced and asked if he could change it out. When he turned around to put the hot coffee on the counter, he realized that my iced coffee was there waiting.
I don’t like it when people make a big deal about arbitrary things, and I never want to be a burden. It’s hard for me to be honest because it emotionally costs me something if someone is put off by me. I always think I will age out of it, but it’s still a struggle. There’s a line in one of Andrew Peterson’s songs that says, “Do the best you can to say the words.” That line ticks through the ticker in my brain on a daily basis. I’m still trying to say the words.
This seems so petty, because it’s just coffee, but today I said the words instead of holding them in. What I realized was that even though the kid was irritated, he was relieved when he discovered his mistake. If I had taken the hot drink, I would be stuck with something I didn’t want, and the person behind me in the drive-thru would have wanted their drink to be remade. My honesty actually saved him some extra work.
We live in a world that is feeding us lies left and right. It is critical that we search for the truth and say the words of truth when it is necessary. It takes courage to overcome the compulsion to “just be nice” but it is absolutely critical to push past that in these times we are living in.
“These are the things which you should do: speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and judgment for peace in your gates.”
Zechariah 8:16 NASB
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