Clean Slates and Indecision

Our restaurant is in the lobby of an eight-story hotel so naturally, we take care of all the room service. The other night my shift had me answering phones and getting treys ready to bring up to our hotel-dwelling guests. This has always been a fun shift for me because not only do you have a good amount of downtime to pester your friends, but you also pretty much get to exit stage left the moment the work stops.

I had a vested interest in finishing my work early Wednesday night because my beloved Giants were due to play a huge game on ESPN, and since I live 2500 miles away, I rarely get a chance to watch them play ball.

Well, the night was wrapping up according to plan when all of a sudden, the phone rang one more time. Here's where the story gets good, at least in my mind.

Lady on the phone: I would like the chicken with french fries
Me: The chicken sandwich or the stuffed chicken breast?
Lady: Oh, well I'll take the hamburger and fries
Me (forseeing the disaster to come): Umm...you don't want the chicken anymore?
Lady: No, also I'll take a cheesecake and two sprites.
Me: Ok, anything else?
Lady: I would also like some mashed potatoes with the order.
Me: What, with the hamburger?
Lady: No, I don't want a hamburger, I want a stuffed chicken breast.

One thing I have learned about this business is that there is a time to take orders and a time to wait for the guest to make up their minds. Some people mull over these decisions as if this is their last meal. It is best to leave these people to their own devices to slow down the process of losing your own mind. Here is the great disadvantage of taking phone orders. You live at the beck-and-call of the voice on the other end, no matter how indecisive.

Anyhow, the conversation went along about like this, the lady on the other end changing her order as fast as I could write it down, addition and subtraction ebbing and flowing like the mighty Pacific Ocean, when I finally made my stand.

Me: Ma'am, I have absolutely no idea what you want. Please start over completely.

We started all over again, me and the lady on the other end. We had a clean slate and do you know what happened? She ordered half of the things she had wanted, causing two needless trips up to her room. Sometimes a clean slate is not all we need. We will destroy even a clean slate by our broken thinking, feeling, and acting.

What we need is transformation, not amnesty. That's the beauty of the gospel, right there. Jesus gives us a totally new identity and its not a clean slate. We would destroy a new beginning if he didn't change us. Jesus stands in our place and begins to change us to look like him. His Spirit living in us guides our thinking, feeling and acting.

We can no more easily change ourselves than we can start new by ourselves. It is an amazing thing that not only does our Father choose us in spite of our indecision, but so much more, he keeps no record of his children's wrong on Jesus' account.