What Are You Doing Here?

I am not sure if it is like this in other professions, but I know for a fact that other waiters get the same question from guests on a regular basis. Some people want to know if you are going to school, or if you are in a witness protection program, or if our doctors have told us to wait tables for our health. It seems like an odd question for a total stranger to ask, does it not?

Now, these people mean well for certain. There are quite a few of my friends who ask such questions themselves, so I rarely question the motivation behind such a query. Some people, for some strange reason, care about complete strangers to the point that even the guy waiting on their table is worth finding out some detail about his life, his story.

I have always feared this question coming about for two key reasons. First of all, I hate to sound like Ned Flanders when I am waiting on somebody's table who has a tasty beverage in their hand. The last person I want to come across when I am having a good beer or Jack and Coke is the self-righteous guy raining on my parade. Hey, if God had not intended us to enjoy things, we would have no taste buds. There is nothing at all wrong with enjoying the good things in this life with those we care about (I believe the topic of moderation has been abundantly discussed in this here blog!).

So coming off as holier-than-thou is always something I am wary of at work. I think this is a healthy fear, and I spend a lot of energy dispelling myths of self-justification (which is the greatest enemy to the grace of Christ that I know) when I am at work. The second reason a personal question like "What are you doing here" makes me cringe is a more basic, substantive reason.

At the end of the day it scares me to death to invite people into my weaknesses. I really do not know what the last 8 years in school was all about. I have no idea what the ministry of Casey Hobbs will be, when it is all said and done.

Goals? Dreams? Visions? 20-year plan? 10-year plan? 5? 1? Nope. Except one thing, I do not have any of this. There is one thing I am settled on. I want to know and be known by God in Jesus Christ.

In the midst of so much self-definition on this blog (which I thank you, dear reader, for putting up with over the years), it turns out the only definition I will ever have is to be found in a person, that of Jesus. I want to know him as Friend and Lord; King and Brother; Priest and Confidant.

The operative word then becomes "trust". Trust in who God has shown himself to be in Jesus Christ. Trust in his promise to never leave me or let me go. Trust in his coming back to judge the living and the dead. Trust in his position as mediator between God and Man.

Maybe it is a good thing not to know. Martin Luther wrote:

Bewilderment is the true comprehension. Not to know where you are going is the true knowledge. My comprehension
transcends yours. Thus Abraham went forth from his father not knowing wither he went. He trusted himself to my
knowledge, and cared not for his own, and thus he took the right road and came to his journey's end. Behold, that is the
way of the cross.

Ya, maybe not knowing is better than we ever imagined.