Hot Tip

Over the course of the past year, something strange has been happening in several restaurants in Lima, Peru. It's not that the service is slow or that the food is bad; instead, what has been happening is that when we pay the bill and go to leave a tip, the waiters now are asking that we leave the tip in cash, instead of on the credit card.

It seems that when the tip is left on the credit card, in many restaurants in Lima, the management keeps the whole tip instead of giving it to the wait staff!

I've always considered myself a very generous tipper, and in the past I've considered it strange when I've paid a restaurant tab by credit card, and left a big tip as a part of it, yet the waiter never looked very happy or grateful about it. Now I know the reason for the glumness.

This Lima tipping controversy leads me to consider how this might also affect ministries around the world. Are you doing something that you think is a great thing, but that really doesn't reach the people that you're thinking that it's going to reach? If I leave a tip in a Lima restaurant, but it never reaches the pocket of the hard-working waiter who deserves it, then what good does it serve? Similarly, are you involved in church or ministry projects that you think are doing well, or that you think are serving a good purpose, when in fact they are not? Is someone or something intercepting your good efforts? Do you even know about it?

It's always a good idea to measure ministry effectiveness, using whatever yardstick you deem appropriate, and also to ask a lot of questions and to give a lot of oversight, in order to ascertain that your worthwhile projects and missions indeed are having the positive effect that you hope them to have.

Learn the lesson of the tip-that-wasn't-a-tip: make sure your good acts, good works, goodwill, and good heart are reaching those that you intend them all to reach!